Killer dolphins with knives and pistols attached to their heads. It might sound crazy, but that’s reportedly one element of the Ukrainian navy’s restarted marine mammal program.
The program reportedly includes training dolphins to search for mines and marking them with buoys. But Ukraine also plans to train the dolphins “to attack enemy combat swimmers using special knives or pistols fixed to their heads,” according to RIA Novosti. A source inside the Ukrainian navy told the agency that the exercises, which are being conducted at the state oceanarium in Sevastopol, are “counter-combat swimmer tasks in order to defend ships in port and on raids.”
Largely, using dolphins for military purposes is no secret. The U.S. Navy trains dolphins to hunt mines, and tests several dolphin-based systems designed to stop enemy divers from infiltrating harbors. The Soviet Union had a dolphin program of its own based at the Black Sea port of Sevastopol until the USSR cracked apart. The Soviet dolphin unit stayed in Sevastopol, but ownership was transferred to Ukraine, where it was kept afloat by switching to civilian tasks like working with disabled children, according to the agency.
I kinda wonder how much of this is like Reagan’s “Star Wars”, seems every military has a project of weaponized dolphins, but they never seem to come to light.
The knives and pistols are a new thing tho. That’s all kinds of bizarre!
h/t Mad Saint Jack who obviously thinks my reputation proceeds me by titling the email “No Means No!” LOL! 😀
Hmmm. So what do you think it would cost to have a Ukrainian Dolphin come out to next years N.E. Blogshoot and do a Bayonet Charge?
Untrained dolphins are expensive, add training and special hardware, we’re talking fat cash!
So when do we get some frickin’ sharks with some frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads!? 🙂
You know I just saw a short documentary about this exact topic. Actually…the idea of “weaponized dolphins” was secondary to the main story, which was that a diver had been attacked by a 45-foot sea monster back in 1980 off the coast of California. Basically, it was suggested that an off-shore oil drilling rig had disturbed an underwater cavern and whatever it was, it got loose. Initially, the incident was reported as a shark attack, but witnesses said no way! Apparently, after the Navy realized this thing was on the loose, it equipped several dolphins with CO2 weapons (to induce an embolism) to attack the thing. Only a fraction of the dolphins returned, but of the ones that did return, all their weapons had been discharged. It’s a very interesting story…check out: http://www.o3p.com/threads/was-a-living-dinosaur-killed-by-us-military-dolphins-in-1980.817/