Russia’s combat dolphins may have been used in Syria: report
Satellite imagery shows possible marine mammal pens at Russia's naval base in Syria during late 2018.
Russia may have deployed combat dolphins to help its war effort in Syria, new open-source research suggests.
Satellite imagery appears to show marine mammal pens were at the Russian naval base in Tartus, Syria, for a period in late 2018. Writing in Forbes, open-source researcher H I Sutton says the dolphins probably came from a Black Sea unit near Sevastopol, Crimea. They may have been deployed to "counter enemy divers who might try to sabotage ships in the port" or to retrieve objects from the sea, he wrote.
The pens appeared only from September to December 2018, leading Sutton to speculate the dolphins “may have been a test. Or it may not have ended well.”
Russia has a history of training marine mammals for military tasks. During the Cold War, the Soviet navy is believed to have taught dolphins to use their echolocation to search for underwater mines and detect submarines. A retired Russian colonel told The Guardian the cetaceans were even trained to plant explosive devices on enemy ships.
