Russia has deployed trained dolphins during its invasion of Ukraine to protect a naval base in the Black Sea, USNI News reported.
The Russian Navy has placed two dolphin pens in the entrance to the port of Sevastopol, sheltered just inside a jetty. The pens were moved there in February, prior to the start of the invasion of Ukraine, according to some satellite images.
Sevastopol is the most important naval base of the Russian Navy in the Black Sea. Dolphins may be tasked with counter-diving operations, a traditional role for which both the United States and Russia have trained marine mammals.
The training of these cetaceans could prevent Ukrainian special operations infiltrate the underwater port to sabotage warships.
Inside the harbor, many ships from High-value Russian Navy weapons are positioned out of range of Ukrainian missiles but are vulnerable to submarine sabotage, according to satellite photos.
Military Dolphin Programs
During the Cold War, the Soviet Navy developed various marine mammal programs, including training dolphins at sea Black. The unit was based in Kazachya Bukhta, near Sevastopol, where it is still located today.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the unit passed to the Ukrainian army. Although there were attempts to keep it operational, it barely stayed open. With the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, the unit came under the control of the Russian Navy. Subsequently, the marine mammal programs were expanded and returned to operational service.
This is part of the Russian military’s broader reinvestment in marine mammal programs in recent years 10 years. This has included the Black Sea Fleet unit and a separate operation in the Arctic.
In the north of the Arctic, the Russian Northern Fleet uses different types of marine mammals. Beluga whales and seals, both with thick layers of blubber to keep them warm, are better protected from the cold than the bottlenose dolphins used in the Black Sea.
The of April 2019, a trained beluga whale turned up off northern Norway. Nicknamed ‘Hvaldimir’ by locals, this whale is believed to have escaped from the Russian Navy program, according to the BBC .
It is not only the Arctic that has shown signs of increased use of Russian marine mammals. In 2018, the dolphins of the Black Sea Fleet were deployed during several months at the Russian Mediterranean Sea naval base in Tartus, Syria, according to satellite photos.
The mobile pens used for this deployment were very similar to those currently in the port of Sebastopol.
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