3 commando dolphins go AWOL in Crimea

3 commando dolphins go AWOL in Crimea


The commandos are trained to hunt for mines or plant explosives on enemy ships.



(Photo: Brien Aho, US Navy, AFP)
Three Ukrainian commando dolphins trained to search for mines,
attack divers and plant explosives have escaped from their handler in
the Crimea, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported Tuesday.
The
news agency, citing the Ukrainian media, said only two of five
military-trained "killer" dolphins returned to their base in the port
city of Sevastopol after recent exercises.
RIA Novosti said the
Ukrainian defense ministry denied the reports of killer dolphins going
AWOL, but also even refused to confirm the existence of such a program.
Dolphins
were trained for commando missions at Sevastopol for the Soviet navy as
far back as 1973, but Ukraine took over the unit after the Soviet
breakup and the splitting of the Black Sea fleet into the Ukrainian and
Russian fleets.
To keep the unit intact, the dolphins were trained for civilian tasks such as working with disabled children.
A
military source in Sevastopol told RIA Novosti last year, however,
that the Ukrainian navy had restarted training dolphins for commando
operations, such as attacking enemy combat swimmers using special knives
or pistols fixed to their heads.
They were also being trained to
plant explosives, carried on their heads, on enemy ships, the
unidentified source is quoted as saying.
Even in the past,
training could go awry at certain times of the year, a former Soviet
naval trainer told the news agency, and may account for the latest
defections.
"If a male dolphin saw a female dolphin during the
mating season, then he would immediately set off after her, Yury
Plyachenko, a former Soviet naval anti-sabotage officer told RIA
Novosti."But they came back in a week or so."
CBS Seattle reports
that other militaries, including the U.S. Navy, also usedolphins, but
that the U.S. trains them not for attack but for intelligence gathering.
CBS reports dolphins were used in the Iraq War.
Contributing: Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY

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