World of the Bizarre

Does Iran have a pod of Soviet killer dolphins ?

By T.K. Randall
January 13, 2020

Image: Bottlenose Dolphin
Credit: NASA / (PD) As far back as the 1960s, militaries around the world have been dabbling with the idea of training dolphins to attack, sabotage or spy on their enemies.

Russia in particular was notorious for its dolphin-based military projects and according to reports, some of the animals that it trained to kill enemy divers may have since ended up in Iran.

The story goes that in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, a unit of military trained dolphins was sent to the Crimean Peninsula where they were taught to attack enemy frogmen with harpoons and to blow up enemy ships kamikaze style using explosive sea mines strapped to their bodies.

This crack unit of dolphins however ultimately ended up being sold to Iran sometime around the year 2000 where they reportedly continued their training as part of the country's own military efforts.Today, the fate of these animals remains unclear, however it is assumed Iran still has them.

Given that dolphins can live up to 50 years, it is possible that some of them are still around.

So could they actually be deployed as part of any future conflict between Iran and the US ? The chances are extremely remote - not to mention that they would be positively ancient by now.

As things stands, geriatric dolphins armed with harpoons are probably the least of our worries.

Source: Boing Boing

Tags: Dolphins