Thread: Ukrain military Dolphins armed with guns and knives escape into wild

Dolphins armed with guns and knives allegedly escape into wild

By Eric Pfeiffer, Yahoo! News | The Sideshow – 37 mins ago...

A Russian news report clains a trio of "armed" dolphins have escaped into the wild (Australian AP)No, it’s not a promo for the latest SyFy movie. There are claims circulating that three dolphins have escaped from a Ukrainian military training facility armed with head-mounted guns and knives and trained to attack humans.

Could this seemingly outrageous claim actually be true? Unfortunately, the U.S. media has nothing on a number of international publications that publish completely fabricated tales, often to score political points. And for their part, the Ukrainian government has denied the claim, calling it a “fabrication” and a “gross provocation.”

The Russian publication RIA Novosti claims that the Ukrainian dolphin program is two-fold: Training the dolphins to detect and mark mines but also equipping them with weapons to attack enemy human swimmers who may pose a threat to Ukrainian navel vessels.

Interestingly, Wired points out that some Russian soldiers are actually trained to combat dolphins in case they are attacked by them while on a mission.

And as sensational as it may sound, it’s not like this story simply appeared out of thin air. As several news outlets have reported, the former Soviet Union engaged in similar training practices with dolphins and the sea-faring mammals have been used by countries around the world in various naval exercises, including in the U.S. Navy.

On its website, the Navy explains: “The U.S. Navy has found that the biological sonar of dolphins, called echolocation, makes them uniquely effective at locating sea mines so they can be avoided or removed. Other marine mammals like the California sea lion also have demonstrated the ability to mark and retrieve objects for the Navy in the ocean. In fact, marine mammals are so important to the Navy that there is an entire program dedicated to studying, training, and deploying them.”

Of course, as Wired points out, the U.S. Navy has a perfectly good explanation for why they don’t weaponize dolphins: self-preservation. In a FAQ on their marine mammal-training program, the Navy writes:

“Since dolphins cannot discern the difference between enemy and friendly vessels, or enemy and friendly divers and swimmers, it would not be wise to give that kind of decision authority to an animal.”

Indeed. No one wants to get caught in the crosshairs of a “Flipper.”

You can read more about the Soviet-era dolphin-training program here.

Dolphins armed with guns and knives allegedly escape into wild | The Sideshow - Yahoo! News

Ukrainian attack dolphins not roaming the seas for romance

Published March 13, 2013
FoxNews.com

A dolphin army with special knives or pistols fixed to their heads is not on the loose in European waters, a Ukrainian newspaper said on Wednesday.

A report in Ria Novosti made the outrageous claim Tuesday that trained dolphins from the Ukrainian Navy -- specially outfitted with weaponry -- had swam away from their handlers in February, probably hunting for mates.


'Control over dolphins was quite common in the 1980's.'

- Yury Plyachenko, a former Soviet naval anti-sabotage officer


“Control over dolphins was quite common in the 1980's,” Yury Plyachenko, a former Soviet naval anti-sabotage officer, told Ria Novosti. “If a male dolphin saw a female dolphin during the mating season, then he would immediately set off after her. But they came back in a week or so.”

The report was a fraud, however, according to Anatoly Gobachev, director of the Ukrainian State Oceanarium.

In a newspaper article from New Sebastol, Gorbachev explained that the Oceanarium was closed on the day the “deadly” dolphins made a break for it, as well as several days before that. And while there are six dolphins at the facility, they are all still safely in their cages.

The hoax nevertheless appeared to have taken in several news agencies including Huffington Post and The Atlantic, which published an apology for the error on Wednesday.

Ria Novosti has not altered its story, however, which still states that a military source in Sevastopol told the agency last year that the Ukrainian navy had restarted training dolphins to attack enemy combat swimmers and detect mines. The agency has reported in the past on the existence of the dolphins army, which is trained to attack enemy combat swimmers using special knives or pistols fixed to their heads.

There is at least a germ of truth to the story: Militaries have been known to train sea animals for a variety of purposes, including the U.S. Navy.

“Mammal systems” such as dolphins and sea lions have supported the U.S. Navy for more than 40 years. They were useful during the Vietnam War and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and they have engaged in counter-terrorist missions.

The U.S. Navy’s Explosives Ordinance Disposal team locates, identifies and disposes of mines from 30,000 feet in the air to 300 feet below the sea. It considers sea lions and dolphins superior to UUVs (underwater unmanned vehicles) for some of those missions.

Dolphin mine hunters cleared the entrance, waters and harbor of Umm Qasr, Iraq, to support the humanitarian aid mission in the Spring of 2003.

Ukrainian attack dolphins not roaming the seas for romance | Fox News