Which sounds like this: “I want to know about combat dolphins. About how the military uses and trains dolphins for their own purposes.”,

Interesting? Me too, let's find out the details!

It is believed that humans have the largest brain on Earth relative to body weight. With a mass of 100 kg, his brain weighs 1.5 kg. Dolphins have a similar ratio. The brain of a common dolphin with a body weight of 50–100 kg weighs about 1 kg. And bottlenose dolphins weigh almost 2 kg! (The brain of a 100 kg shark weighs only a few tens of grams)

It's no secret that war is the engine of progress. To achieve military superiority, people are ready to use any means, even to attract animals to their side. As a result, completely unique units of dolphin saboteurs were born.

The idea of ​​​​transforming marine mammals into soldiers arose not just anywhere, but in Russia. Back in 1915, the trainer Vladimir Durov approached the General Staff of the Navy, who proposed to neutralize underwater mines with the help of seals. The War Ministry became interested, and in three months 20 animals were trained in Balaklava Bay. During demonstration training, they easily detected dummies of anti-ship mines under water and marked them with special buoys. But it was never possible to use seals in combat conditions. The Germans were worried about the appearance of an unusual special forces, and one night all the "sea sappers" were poisoned. Military counterintelligence began an investigation into this dark crime. Unfortunately, it was not possible to complete it. The revolution broke out, and the case of the death of war seals was closed. With the Bolsheviks coming to power, there was a danger that secret methodological literature on the training of pinniped saboteurs would end up in the hands of the enemy, so most of the documents were destroyed.

Saboteur fighters

People returned to domesticating marine mammals and using them for military purposes half a century later, during the Vietnam War.

This time the Americans achieved colossal success. Along with seals and sea lions, they began to attract dolphins to underwater work. Their first baptism of fire was patrolling the largest US naval base in Vietnam - Cam Ranh. By 1970, Operation Quick Search included six animals trained at the San Diego base. The inhabitants of the sea helped catch over 50 saboteur swimmers who were trying to attach magnetic mines to the sides of American ships. Moreover, as the military claimed, there were cases when sea lions independently destroyed swimmers using knives or needles with poison attached to their noses. According to the stories of former special forces of the Black Sea Fleet, two Soviet scuba divers were killed at that time.

Obviously, this inspired Soviet specialists to resume work with marine animals. In 1967, the first Soviet military aquarium was opened in the Cossack Bay of Sevastopol. 50 bottlenose dolphins were supplied for food. In the 1970s, several dozen scientific institutes of the USSR joined the work. “Dolphins and seals were trained in several areas: guarding and patrolling the area, destroying saboteurs, searching and detecting certain underwater objects,” says Vladimir Petrushin, chief military trainer of the Sevastopol Oceanarium.

Training took place according to long-established patterns: action - reinforcement. The animals developed the skills of the desired behavior. For completing the task they received a fish. However, having understood the meaning of what was happening, the dolphins took the initiative and themselves proposed certain algorithms for cooperation. Soon we achieved good results.

“I was present at military exercises when dolphins were searching for saboteurs in the Sevastopol Bay,” says Lev Mukhametov, head of the marine mammal group at the Research Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - The spectacle is unforgettable. The entrance to the port there is very narrow, only 700 m. On the shore there were permanent caged enclosures in which the animals were kept. Bottlenose dolphins, with the help of their natural sonar, even while locked up, are able to notice any underwater object at a distance of about half a kilometer. So, having discovered the swimmers, they pressed a special pedal. A rocket rose into the air and an alarm sounded. Then the animal stood up so that its nose indicated the approximate location of the ‘guest’. After which he pressed another pedal, and the doors of the enclosure opened. The dolphin rushed towards the intruder and neutralized him.” In September 1973, the Oceanarium was visited by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Gorshkov, who was pleasantly amazed by what he saw. Marine mammals detected saboteurs in 80% of cases. The situation was somewhat worse with night swimmers - 28–60%. True, without leaving the coastal enclosure. On the open sea, the probability of detection was close to 100%.

“It’s simply impossible to hide from a dolphin,” says trainer Vladimir Petrushin. - Yes, and fighting with him under water is not suitable for a person. We conducted exercises regularly. The GRU swimmers were given the task of infiltrating the protected area, and at that time we were releasing the animals. As a result, there was not a single breakthrough. Sometimes swimmers preferred to immediately get out onto old abandoned buoys or breakwaters and bask in the sun while dolphins ruled the “combat” zone. Because of this, a lot of misunderstandings arose, because we believed that there were people in the zone and demanded that the animals look for them. And they showed that there was no one. And only before demobilization, the GSE officers admitted that all this time they were simply fooling the command and did not think about fulfilling their task.”

“Contrary to general opinion, Sevastopol dolphins were not trained to kill people,” continues Lev Mukhametov. “Otherwise, they would simply start attacking their own, because it is difficult for an animal to distinguish our scuba diver from a stranger.” Therefore, having reached the goal, they only tore off the saboteur’s fins and mask and pushed him to the surface. But this was quite enough. Meanwhile, a speedboat with special forces came out from the shore and picked up the unlucky scuba diver.”

Nevertheless, military weapons (knives, needles with paralyzing or poisonous substances, and even pistols worn on the nose and triggered upon impact) were available in the arsenal of the special forces. But, as practice has shown, after a fatal attack, the dolphins experienced severe stress and often sabotaged further orders; it is not for nothing that legends were made about their goodwill towards people. Therefore, both Soviet and American specialists tried not to take matters to extremes. Sea lions and seals are another matter. They poked people with poisoned needles without any remorse.

Since 1975, a combat detachment of marine mammals took up regular duty in the Sevastopol Bay and, together with a special forces detachment, carried out round-the-clock patrols. Each shift stood a four-hour watch, going to positions through a special channel near the Konstantinovsky ravelin. But the service of combat dolphins was not limited to identifying enemy spies.

The dolphin's brain has a complex structure and a very large number of convolutions of the cerebral cortex, the highest part of the brain responsible for complex mental functions. And a highly developed brain means high intelligence, highly organized, complex behavior. Dolphins are skilled hunters, caring parents, disciplined members of the pod, and, if necessary, skillful leaders of the pod.

Underwater search

In March 1973, the Navy leadership received a secret report from the American Naval Center in San Diego, which stated that in two years the Americans had managed to train a group of dolphins and two more killer whales to find and recover sunken combat torpedoes. Similar experiments immediately began to be carried out in Sevastopol. In February 1977, another unit appeared in the Black Sea Fleet - a search unit. It was this that glorified the aquarium and brought great benefits to the fleet.

“The dolphins’ ability to successfully search for lost objects amazed our trainers,” says Vladimir Petrushin. “They could even find bolts and nuts that had once been shown to them and then scattered throughout the bay.” It was a sin not to put such outstanding talents into practice, fortunately there was a reason for this.

Ship firings were constantly taking place at specially designated training grounds in the Black Sea. And although the command took all precautions, the sailors lost several training torpedoes a year. It was almost impossible for scuba divers to find them. Having lost speed, the torpedo sank and immediately buried itself in deep silt. This is where the help of dolphins was needed.

“Bottlenose dolphins have an excellent acoustic radar,” says Lev Mukhametov. – At the same time, it is much more advanced than all technical devices of a similar nature that man has invented and made. With the help of an echolocator, animals can not only find even the smallest fish in the water, but also look underground to a depth of half a meter. And at the same time, they unmistakably determine what the sunken object is made of: wood, concrete or metal.”

In practice it looked like this. The dolphins were fitted with special backpacks with audio beacons and buoys with anchors on their faces. Having discovered a lost torpedo, they swam up to it, poked their nose into the ground and dropped the audio beacon along with the buoy. And then the divers got into action.

According to the military, the creation and maintenance of the combat dolphin service in Sevastopol paid off within a few years. One training torpedo cost approximately 200,000 Soviet rubles, and the animals saved hundreds of such torpedoes! At the same time, they discovered things that the admirals themselves had long forgotten about. “I myself witnessed how, during an exercise, our dolphin came across an automatic mini-submarine that was lost 10 years ago,” says Lev Mukhametov. “He set up a buoy, and when the object was lifted onto the ship, the military’s joy knew no bounds, because they had long since despaired of finding the submarine, they wrote it off and received a good scolding from their superiors. And here a good opportunity turned up for everyone to improve.”

Search dolphins have achieved incredible skill in their specialty. They even mastered underwater photography. A camera was developed specifically for the special forces that can withstand depths of over 100 meters. The animals were taught to correctly point the lens at the target, freeze, and only at that moment release the shutter. One of the difficulties with underwater photography was that the powerful flash blinded the animals, so we had to teach them to close their eyes. Then, from the photographs, it was easy to determine what kind of find was lying at the bottom and whether it was worth spending effort on lifting it.

Sometimes civilian departments also turned to the military for help. For example, at the request of archaeologists, fighting dolphins searched for and found the remains of ancient ships. With their help, ancient Greek amphoras and other antiquities were raised from the bottom.

Failed biorobots

Naturally, all these tricks required remarkable mental abilities. “Dolphins are very smart and cheerful creatures, and any work was easy for them,” says Alexander Supin, head of the laboratory of the Research Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “Some scientists seriously talk about the presence of the rudiments of intelligent activity in them - meanwhile, this very intelligence sometimes got in the way of the military.”

For a long time, Navy analysts toyed with the idea of ​​turning dolphins into suicide bombers, but to no avail. With some sixth sense, the animals understood that they wanted to send them to certain death, and refused to follow commands. It was then that the military began to think about whether to turn dolphins into living robots.

“Existing technologies and technical means made it possible to achieve this,” continues Alexander Supin. – By passing an electric current through certain areas of the brain, you can create the illusion of loud sounds or flashes of light. If the flash comes from one side, the animal is frightened by it and swims to the other. This ensures control of its movements to the right or left. You can also make him stop or swim faster. For example, towards a ship with a mine on its back. But these experiments were quickly abandoned.” Brain surgeries were too complicated. And the scientists themselves, for the most part, did not want to mutilate the animals and burn their brains with electricity. And the “biorobots” turned out to be extremely painful creatures. Very soon the military closed the project, although experiments on implanting electrodes into the heads of dolphins for purely scientific purposes were carried out for a long time. For example, with their help, the Research Institute for Problems of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences was able to make an outstanding discovery: unihemispheric sleep was recorded in dolphins. Soon, however, all invasive experiments on dolphins were banned in most countries.

Currently, no self-respecting scientific journal will publish the results of experiments that used methods that mutilated these animals.

Persian Gulf thunderstorm

In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the dolphinarium in Sevastopol came under the jurisdiction of Ukraine. Almost immediately, all military experiments with animals were stopped. Strong trainers have quit and now work mainly at the Moscow Dolphinarium. The aquarium, which remained out of business, survived by preparing performances for the public, but the situation continued to deteriorate. In 2000, information leaked to the media that three dolphins and one beluga whale, still of Soviet vintage, were sold to Iran. Ukrainian officials were quick to declare that it was “purely for peaceful purposes.”

Meanwhile, military research continues in the United States. Today, 250 animals are working in various programs at seven US Navy bases. Due to increasing pressure from the "greens", as well as for security reasons, all these experiments are classified, so little is known about them. According to American media reports, one of the units is already guarding the waters of the Kings Bay naval base in Georgia, and in the near future it is planned to use them to protect the Bangor base in Washington state, where Ohio-class nuclear missile submarines are deployed.

The training of the members of this special squad was tested in a combat situation during Operation Desert Storm. Off the coast of Kuwait, marine animals first cleared the area of ​​enemy swimmers, and then began detecting mines. During the second Iraq War, dolphins were actively used to clear mines in the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. In 2003, nine animals were brought to the Gulf region. With their help, more than 100 mines were discovered in the harbor. The joint service of a man and a dolphin, especially in combat conditions, brings them much closer together. People strive to honor their comrades in arms. For his outstanding service, one of the dolphins, Taffy, was recently promoted to sergeant in the US Navy.

Now India, Iran, Israel and a number of other countries are showing interest in fighting dolphins. Meanwhile, according to the unanimous opinion of the staff of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, it is much more productive to use dolphins not for military, but for peaceful purposes. For example, they can be very effective in inspecting underwater structures, in particular gas pipelines. The dolphin is able to notice any mechanical damage or a stream of gas coming out of the pipe, photograph them, and attach cables along which the necessary equipment can be lowered under water. The institute’s specialists are ready to offer their services in training the world’s first unit of civilian dolphins, whose tasks will include maintaining and monitoring the condition of the European gas pipeline laid along the bottom of the Baltic Sea. And who knows, maybe using dolphins for peaceful purposes will greatly benefit science and open up new ways for two of the smartest species on Earth to fully cooperate. And this, you see, is much more interesting than war.

Just recently, the Internet exploded with the news that, unable to withstand close contact with humans, three armed combat dolphins escaped from the training site of the State Oceanarium of the National Assembly of Ukraine.

The reason for such information was the “official report” of the head of the Scientific Research Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “State Oceanarium” that appeared in the media, in which the emergency was reported. The director of the "training base" denied such rumors, saying that they have no idea what weapons the "report" is talking about, adding that they don't even have dolphins.

Let us remind you that the alarming news sounded like this. From the Sevastopol military base, where they again began experimenting on the smartest creatures on the planet - dolphins, three mammals, armed to the teeth with IPP-75-03 kits (an individual firearms device that is attached to the animal's head), fled into the open sea; two more were unable to leave the place of his imprisonment. The search was carried out for several hours, but to no avail.

However, as they say, there is a grain of humor in every joke.

But as for our “probable enemy”, let’s take a closer look at this topic:

At the beginning of November 2012, representatives of the US Navy announced that starting from 2017, dolphins and sea lions specially trained to search for sea mines will give way to uninhabited underwater and surface vehicles and robots. More than half a century of service in the American Navy by sea animals in uniform now appears to be close to completion.
Changing mammals to robots

One of the main reasons for this decision is financial. In the context of constant optimization of military expenditures, US Navy specialists, who analyzed actual and estimated data on the cost of operating “animal” and “soulless” systems, came to the conclusion that the full life cycle of a mine countermeasures system based on autonomous uninhabited underwater vehicles (AUVs), unmanned boats and robotic deminers will cost the fleet less than the use of a similar system built on the basis of marine animals - dolphins and California sea lions. According to open foreign sources, every year the American Navy spends at least $20 million to maintain a combat-ready squad of marine animals - 24 “mine-resistant” dolphins, about 50 dolphins for other tasks and 30 sea lions.

In particular, any business trip of animals is accompanied by a mass of supporting measures: dolphins and sea lions must be transported in special containers with sea water, each group of fighting animals is accompanied by a group of doctors and specialist service personnel, etc. We must not forget that retired fighting animals also require expenses for their maintenance until death. In addition, according to naval experts, underwater vehicles and robots will allow operations to be carried out over a wider range, without restrictions imposed by the physiology of marine animals.

“We are currently in the process of reorganization and, in general, plan to begin the gradual completion of the program in the 2017 financial year (using marine animals to search for and, in some cases, destroy sea mines and explosive objects under water. - V.Shch.), - Captain Frank Linkous, head of the mine warfare department of the Capabilities and Resources Integration Directorate of the US Navy Headquarters, emphasized in an interview with the BBC. “The marine biological system has fantastic capabilities, but robotic systems can already solve similar problems faster and cheaper. Maybe not 100%, but close to it.”

To replace their animals in uniform, as well as to reduce the number of military personnel involved in mine defense, American admirals plan to use a fleet of surface unmanned mine-hunting boats, a mine countermeasures system based on the German Sea Fox-type AUV, as well as the "Sea Fox"-type AUV. Naiffish" ("Knife Fish"). The torpedo-shaped Kniffish AUV, also known as the Surface Mine Countermeasure Unmanned Undersea Vehicle or SMCM UUV, was developed by General Dynamics and was named after one of the fish of the order Gymnotiiformes, distinguished by an eel-like body and capable of generating electrical discharges.

However, in an interview with the American newspaper Navy Times, Ed Ebinger, Deputy Head of the Expeditionary Forces Support Directorate of the US Navy Headquarters, noted that the high costs characteristic of the initial stage of operating mine-resistant unmanned boats and AUVs will gradually decrease significantly and, on average, will turn out to be more attractive in terms of Compared to the costs of maintaining a marine biological system in combat readiness, he emphasized: “The capabilities of dolphins are phenomenal, and even with the use of the latest technologies, we are unlikely to be able to come close to the level of completely abandoning them.”

“Cetaceans can be useful in searching for missile warheads, satellites and everything else that human efforts repeatedly fall into the ocean from the sky,” famous American neurophysiologist John Cunningham Lilly said in 1958 at a seminar specially organized for senior Pentagon officials. – They, for example, can be trained to search for mines, torpedoes, submarines and other objects invented by man for naval operations... They can be trained to conduct reconnaissance and patrol duty on ships and submarines, they can also be transported to different places and used in harbors as demolition bombers, to blow up submarines, underwater missile launchers and surface ships with nuclear charges.”

The topic of the report prepared by Lilly was the results of a study conducted under his leadership and aimed at studying the possibility of using dolphins and certain species of whales in the interests of the US Navy. John Lilly was confident that some of the most “intelligent” marine mammals - for example, dolphins - could be used with high efficiency even as “homing weapons against humans.” The scientist believed that specially trained dolphins could “go out into the harbor at night and catch spies dropped by the enemy using submarines or airplanes.”
The American intelligence services and the Navy command could not help but seize on such an idea. Appropriate orders were given, and in 1960, a Pacific white-sided dolphin, or rather a female dolphin named Notty, was purchased from the Los Angeles Aquarium. It came to the disposal of the Naval Weapons Testing Department of the US Naval Research Office (San Diego). The first area of ​​work that Notty was involved in was not sabotage. The developers of underwater torpedo and missile weapons were interested in the unique features of the echolocation apparatus and hydrodynamics of the dolphin. In particular, to increase the hydrodynamic efficiency of the movement of torpedoes and missiles in water. However, it soon became clear that within the small pool where Notty lived, it was not possible to fully “unleash her capabilities.”

They decided to continue the work in the town of Point Mugu, in the area of ​​which the Pacific Test Site and the Naval Missile Test Center were located. There, in Mugu Bay, a convenient natural almost closed lagoon, a naval biological station was created. Subsequently, a branch was established in Hawaii - in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu. In July 1962, the first three dolphins were delivered there and tests continued, which quickly acquired a special, sabotage and anti-sabotage “color.” Responsibility for the work was assigned to the department for studying marine fauna of the specified center, which, interestingly, was created within the framework of the US space program and was engaged in life support systems in a confined space, but after the transfer of all work on space to the Air Force, it was reoriented to the study of marine fauna for Navy.

Department specialists attempted to study the “ability to solve combat missions” in sharks, turtles and other sea inhabitants. But the experiments did not give results. After a long break, work with sharks resumed in 2008 under the auspices of the US Defense Research and Development Agency. Their main goal was to study the capabilities of sharks to monitor the sea and transmit information about possible threats using special sensors (the work was led by Jell Atima, professor of biology from Boston University).

The famous American dolphinologist Forrest Glenn Wood, who worked for a long time at the biological station of the US Naval Research Administration, wrote in his work “Marine Mammals and Man”: “The idea that seemed most feasible to us was to make them (dolphins) assistant divers. And in response to questions about why the Navy should bear the expense of studying marine mammals, we usually said: “Because they can become assistants to military divers.” No one had ever trained dolphins to carry out commands on the high seas, and therefore the idea itself looked simply speculative. And before we could implement it, we had to develop methods and equipment.”

Work with marine mammals on “combat topics” was kept secret by the Pentagon, but foreign experts - including those in the Soviet Union - could judge them using data from various open experiments. For example, in 1965, during the SEALAB-2 experiment conducted in La Jolla, the dolphin Tuff Guy (better known as Taffy) “trainingly” rescued an aquanaut who simulated loss of orientation at depth. The diver activated a special signaling device with a recorded signal. The dolphin “stretched” the end of a nylon cord to the aquanaut, along which the diver “in trouble” could rise to the surface. The dolphin also delivered various tools, containers with messages and other small objects from the surface to divers and back.

However, while the whole world was enthusiastically following the unique experiment, at the same time more serious work was underway at Point Mugu at the US Navy Naval Biological Station. They actively tried to teach dolphins and sea lions military skills. These species of marine animals were chosen by American experts because of their outstanding hydrodynamic qualities and exceptional biosonar abilities. For example, dolphins “see” an object the size of a competitive swimmer in water in moderately difficult conditions at a distance of up to 500 meters.

In the wake of the “hype around combat dolphins” raised in the American media, the New Scientist newspaper on August 11, 1966 even published a feuilleton on the topic of kamikaze dolphins, which were being trained for suicidal attacks on enemy submarines: “The enemy will undoubtedly succeed in training other fish and will get himself dolphins for anti-dolphin defense, but we won’t stop there either. We can come up with something even worse against submarines, for example, sending out mobilization notices to electric stingrays. A full-fledged and well-charged stingray is capable of knocking down a horse with its discharge. We will train several thousand stingrays in China Lake to move in a chain, with their negatively charged head pressed against the positively charged tail of the swimmer in front. Such a battery will burn through any submarine it touches with an electric arc. And two hundred giant octopuses, grabbing each other’s tentacles as soon as they smell Chinese stew or Russian black caviar, form a highly effective mobile network for catching small submarines.”

Fight against saboteurs

One of the domestic researchers of marine animals, Nikolai Baryshnikov, noted: “Dolphins are far from peace-loving animals. Their apparent harmlessness in relationships with people is quite relative. In these relationships there is a certain line, crossing which a person initially causes a passive defensive reaction in the animal, which gradually - if a person systematically crosses this line - can turn into an aggressive one... Thus, it has been repeatedly noted that the most respectable males in the first days of captivity took a pose threats towards swimmers. However, it didn’t come to the point of attacking a person - the dolphins preferred to step aside themselves.”

It was this “relative friendliness” of dolphins that was used by military specialists in the process of training to destroy enemy swimmers. The correctness of this approach was confirmed during the top-secret Operation Short Time (1971–1972). Within its framework, a group of six combat dolphins carried out the anti-sabotage defense of the Cam Ranh base in Vietnam for 15 months. According to unofficial data, combat dolphins destroyed at least 50 underwater reconnaissance and saboteurs during the defense of the Cam Ranh naval base.

Official information about the results of the operation has not been made public, and the information that appears periodically is extremely scarce and contradictory. One source of information on Operation Short Time is an article that appeared in 1972 in the Navy Times. It claimed that a “group of specially trained dolphins” was used to guard the Cam Ranh base. They acted according to the following algorithm: having discovered a saboteur, the dolphin gave a signal to its “trainer”. Having received the order to “attack,” he went on the attack, poking the enemy with a special needle-syringe attached to the rostrum (nose of the dolphin). Thus, a nerve-paralytic poison was injected into the swimmer’s body. There is another opinion, belonging to Soviet intelligence, about carbon dioxide injected through a needle. From the gas-dynamic impact, the person’s insides “teared apart”, and the saboteur went to the bottom.

As for the methods of training fighting dolphins for such actions, the Americans trained the animals to beg for fish by hitting the trainer’s body with the rostrum. In a combat situation, a dolphin prepared in this way was armed with a gas canister and a long titanium needle. When the “anti-sabotage” dolphin encountered a swimming person on its way, it approached him and, “begging for fish,” hit him with its nose with a needle.

It should be emphasized that the command of the US Navy refused to comment even on the very fact of the existence of a “program to neutralize combat swimmers.” But in 1972, at a hearing of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, one of the former specialists of the Naval Research Office, animal psychologist Michael Greenwood, confirmed the fact that marine mammals were trained at the Underwater Warfare Center specifically to “hunt” people.

But there is a detailed description of the experience of using dolphins and sea lions during the US Navy's testing of the latest weapons. War animals searched for and marked objects, and sea lions were directly involved in lifting missiles and torpedoes from the bottom. The first such operation was carried out in 1966, and in November 1970, three sea lions were involved in tests of the warhead of the ASROC anti-submarine missile complex off the island of San Nicolas. Initially, the sea lions were unable to find the warhead at a depth of 60 meters. Then problems arose with attaching the special grip. Finally, the female sea lion Turk secured her grip on the object the second time. After which the warhead was raised to the surface.

This method of searching for and recovering sunken samples of naval weapons has become standard. For this purpose, the Navy adopted the so-called marine biological “rapid detection” system Mk5 mod.1. It is “designed to search for and lift to the surface practical torpedoes, mines and other objects, equipped in advance with hydroacoustic beacons, from depths of up to 150 meters.”
It consists of two teams of four sea lions, which perform a short dive and then “inform” the operator about the signal from the beacon installed at the facility. If they hear you, they return to the boat and press a special rubber pad with their nose. After that, a grip with a long line is attached to the sea lion's muzzle, which they secure when diving onto the discovered object. The sea lion must sink to the bottom, approach the object at right angles to its longitudinal axis and push it with its grip. The curved legs of the gripper are snapped around the body of the object, and the gripper itself is separated from the muzzle (today a clip is used without a muzzle - the sea lion simply takes it in its teeth.) After a control check that the clip is attached correctly, the animal floats up and receives a “prize”. The object is raised to the surface. During their existence, the “mustachioed fighters” successfully completed 95% of the tasks. But the use of killer whales and pilot whales for deep-sea work is not widespread. Although in the first half of the 1970s, an interesting result was achieved: a trained pilot whale discovered a sunken object and secured a special clamp of lifting equipment to it at a depth of 504 meters.

Today, according to official data, the US Navy is armed with five biotechnical systems with combat marine mammals. In the US Navy, these systems are designated as “marine biological”, but it would be more correct to apply to them the classification introduced by Soviet specialists - biotechnical system, since they include not only animals, but also various technical means.

Unfortunately, the framework of the LiveJournal post does not allow us to provide you with complete information, so

The first experiments with combat marine animals were carried out exactly in RussiaAnd, back in 1915. Then trainer Vladimir Durov contacted the General Staff of the Navy.

He proposed using seals to search for underwater mines. The military became interested, and it was decided to conduct an experiment. In three months, 20 war seals were trained in Balaklava Bay. Animals learned easily find underwater dummies of mines and mark their buoys. But it was never possible to test the seals in combat conditions. One night, all the “pinniped saboteurs” were poisoned.

During the revolution, repressions, and the Great Patriotic War, the highest ranks somehow had no time for fighting seals. Experiments with marine animals were resumed only in the late 60s.

1967 Sevastopol. Cossack Bay. The first Soviet military aquarium. The smooth sides of bottlenose dolphins glisten in the sun. At first glance - nothing special, learning is a game. Only in the role of “toys” are dummies of mines and training torpedoes. Dolphins learn to find underwater shells, protect the water area, and neutralize enemy scuba diver spies.

The greatest admiration was search abilities dolphins. The ultrasonic device that nature provided these animals with is unique; it cannot be created by human hands. By using echolocation(this is the scientific name for the ability to recognize objects using ultrasonic signals), a dolphin can find an object under a layer of silt, and even determine what it is made of.

Sailors trained dolphins on... lost training torpedoes. During exercises, several shells per year were inexplicably lost. Having lost speed, the torpedo sank into the mud, and it was extremely difficult to find it with human power. But the dolphins discovered about a hundred of these torpedoes in a short time, and it was not difficult for them! Among other things, an automatic mini-submarine that was lost in the 1950s was found. The joy of the military knew no bounds.

The search process itself was very simple. A backpack with an audio beacon was put on the animal’s face and a buoy with an anchor was attached. Having found the object, the dolphin dropped its equipment next to it, and then the divers were already rushing there.

Over time, scientists created specially for dolphins underwater camera– he could film at a depth of more than 100 meters. The photographs were needed in order to understand what exactly lay at the bottom and whether it needed to be lifted. The dolphins were trained to aim the device at a target, freeze, and lower the shutter at the right moment.

It is thanks to the search work The aquarium gained fame. Sometimes civilians also turned to the military - for example, archaeological scientists. Dolphins helped them search for sunken ancient ships and lift objects from the bottom - for example, ancient Greek amphorae. This is where underwater photography came to the rescue.

At the aquarium, dolphins were trained to find enemy saboteurs in the ocean. It was this direction that was the first in the development of the military. And it also showed good results. In 1975, combat detachments of marine animals began to carry out regular duty in the Sevastopol Bay along with a special forces detachment. The detachments replaced each other every 4 hours during the day.

In fact, protecting the territory was not the most difficult task for the dolphins. A dolphin can “spot” a swimmer in the water from a distance half a kilometer.

Swim away from the dolphin impossible- he will easily overtake a person. And few would even think of fighting him. Despite its friendliness and interest in humans, the dolphin is many times stronger. With a blow of the rostrum to the head, it can kill a shark, and with a strong movement of the tail, it can break a person’s spine. So the discovered spy can only allow himself to take off his fins and mask - and swim to the surface, where he is already met by a coast guard boat.

Experiments to destroy enemy swimmers aroused great interest among scientists. It turned out that different animals relate to such tasks differently.

The standard scheme of actions looked like this. A syringe with poison and compressed air or a poisoned needle was attached to the animal’s nose. Swimming up to the man, the animal had to lightly touch him with its nose. The seals and sea lions completed the task without hesitation, remaining indifferent to the result (i.e. the corpse). But dolphins after one or two deaths refused carry out other orders. This was another argument confirming the peacefulness of dolphins.

It was not possible to make suicide bombers out of dolphins. The animals understood that they would not return from the mission, and refused to comply with it. And the idea of ​​turning a dolphin into a biorobot by implanting electrodes in its brain was absolutely wild. After a couple of attempts that ended in failure, scientists refused to cripple beautiful and strong animals. And currently there are experiments with implanting something into the body of dolphins prohibited worldwide.

During military training with the inhabitants of the sea, people learned a lot, and first of all - to establish contact with the dolphin. The military studied these beautiful animals well and quickly realized that dolphins cannot be punished.

At first, sea creatures were rewarded with fish after successfully completing a task. Then the dolphins got used to it - they began to take the initiative and introduce their own elements into the tasks, which helped improve the result. So learning was reduced to play. For people it was extremely important, directly related to the defense of the country. And for dolphins it’s simply interesting.

The experiments stopped with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The aquarium went to Ukraine, and military experiments immediately ended. For some time, the dolphinarium was engaged only in game performances for the public. But in 2000, the media received information about sale to Iran three “military” dolphins and one beluga whale. Ukrainian officials said this was done “for purely peaceful purposes.”

Now many countries are interested in fighting dolphins - Iran, India, Israel and others. And in the United States, intensive training of military dolphins is still underway. There are seven naval bases in the United States specifically for these purposes. The Americans have used their combat dolphins “in action” more than once - during Operation Desert Storm, the second war in Iraq, etc.

This was the beginning of the underwater pinniped special forces, where dolphins, sea lions, and seals served. Until recently, it was generally accepted that the pioneers in the use of marine animals for military purposes were the Americans in the 50s. XX century began special experiments to study the combat capabilities of sea animals - dolphins, fur seals, sea lions, or sea lions. However, this is not quite true. We were the first in this matter, and specifically the famous circus trainer Vladimir Durov, who back in the spring of 1915 offered the command of the Russian Imperial Navy his services in training dolphins and sea lions to fight German submarines (at that time the First World War was going on, and Germany was actively used submarines).

The navy became interested in the proposal, and soon a special secret sea training ground was set up in Balaklava Bay near Sevastopol, where 20 dolphins and sea lions were taken. However, in the fall, disaster struck: overnight (one night) all of Vladimir Durov’s sea pets died. The cause of their sudden death was quickly established: they were poisoned. But by whom? Unfortunately, the investigation into the emergency did not produce any results. It was assumed that the act of sabotage was carried out by agents of German intelligence. Durov was ready to put new sea animals “under arms” and continue their training, for which he asked the Main Naval Staff for 50 thousand rubles. But there was no money. And then the revolution of 1917 broke out, and all the documentation with the accumulated experience disappeared without a trace. We forgot about the use of marine animals for military purposes for decades, until in the 50s. The Americans did not deal with this topic.

The Yankees forced us to start over. Soviet intelligence data that the combat capabilities of dolphins, sea lions, and fur seals were being intensively studied at secret bases of the US Navy (in total, the Americans created five oceanariums-training grounds) led to the fact that under a veil of strict secrecy in the early 60s. In the Cossack Bay near Sevastopol, the first special unit in the USSR Navy, similar to those existing abroad, was created - a military oceanarium. We all had to start from scratch. And when it became clear that the animals understood what was required of them, they began to be trained to perform special tasks.

The successes achieved in training sea animals to perform combat missions, as well as the worsening of the Cold War, led the political and military leadership of the USSR to the idea that it would be nice to have similar aquariums in other fleets. And in the 70s. Such secret facilities, in addition to Sevastopol, began to be created in Batumi, Klaipeda and near Vladivostok. More than 150 dolphins and beluga whales, about 50 sea lions and other smart sea creatures “served” in these special forces. If you are so smart, you belong in the army!

The choice of dolphins was not accidental. Since time immemorial, they have attracted attention with their desire to communicate with people. Scientists have found that dolphins have large and complex brains, a developed social structure and an insatiable curiosity about humans. It is no coincidence that the ancient Greeks included them in their myths, and on frescoes 3000 years ago, dolphins are depicted as demigods. From ancient times a legend has come to us about how Odysseus’s son Telemachus, having fallen overboard a ship, was saved by a dolphin who brought him to shore.

And in our time, these legends have become reality. There are numerous cases where dolphins became pilots for sailors, saved drowning people, fought them off from sharks, etc. And of course, it was important that dolphins, whose structure is strikingly similar to humans, are easy to train, learning everything that is required of them, and have such a “hydroacoustic station” in their heads that a modern ship could envy.

In the Pacific Fleet, a secret special unit was stationed in the picturesque Vityaz Bay of Posyet Bay. By order and with money from the USSR Ministry of Defense, TINRO researchers began to put into practice the task of national importance assigned to them.

True, bottlenose dolphins, inhabitants of the southern seas, were unlucky in our conditions; they did not take root in the Far East: of the two individuals brought to Primorye from Sevastopol, one poor fellow soon died, the second also became depressed, and had to be returned back to Chernoye sea.

And then scientists took up the inhabitants of the Far Eastern seas: the relatives of dolphins - beluga whales, as well as sea lions, fur seals, seals. They even got their hands on a northern seal, to which the wits gave the nickname “the man in the gas mask.” The main composition of the oceanarium was beluga whales, which sailors also call “sea canaries” for their songs, often quite musical. These “music lovers” were caught by special teams of hunters in the south of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, and then transported by steamer to their destination in special baths of water. After some time, the TINRO scientists, from whom they signed a non-disclosure agreement, were thanked for the work done and released: the special facility, along with its marine inhabitants, completely passed into the hands of the military.

Beluga whales were trained according to a program specially developed for them. They, as experts said, only perceive gestures and a whistle. They were trained as guards of naval bases - to fight saboteurs, and as animal saboteurs who, if necessary, could mine ships, submarines, and other enemy objects.

After the collapse of the USSR, by the mid-90s, when the volume of previous combat missions was reduced to a minimum, beluga whales and their brothers from the aquarium in Vityaz Bay began to be trained to solve environmental problems and work in emergency situations, for example, for reconnaissance and survey a given area of ​​the sea to identify radiation hazards, photograph and video, search for sunken submarines, etc.

In the 80s of the last century, the coolest couple in the Vityaz Bay aquarium was a far from sweet couple - the sea lions Grom and Margo.

These sea lions could do anything: carry out service, and show non-statutory agility. Perhaps some of the Vladivostok residents still remember how, during the height of perestroika and the swimming season, a sea lion suddenly appeared among the serenely swimming idle people in the area of ​​the Sports Harbor, which brought some confusion to the ranks of the vacationers. Soon he disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared. The troublemaker of public peace was not some stray without family or tribe, but the sea lion Grom, widely famous in narrow naval circles, a seasoned specialist in hunting for underwater saboteurs. Grom, who was AWOL, was tied up and quickly returned to his unit, leaving people to wonder: what was it and where did it come from? Then there were new forays of Thunder into freedom, from which he was excommunicated in childhood. It happened that Margot, his fighting and playful friend, kept him company. But the main violator of military discipline was still Thunder. This almost 1.5-ton colossus did not allow anyone to descend. Margot was especially hard on it.

He could have taken her fish away and simply given her a good beating. Perhaps due to sexual dissatisfaction. As they say, a male sea lion requires a harem of 8-10 females. And because Military service does not allow for so much pleasure, then Margot had to take the rap for everything and everyone. Perhaps, in order to calm down the “barracks hooligan”, Margo tried twice to give birth to cubs, they say, maybe the birth of children will bring the man to his senses, but, alas, unsuccessfully. If Grom felt weak, he strove to “show his fist” to the trainers, and to everyone who, one way or another, dealt with him at the aquarium. It happened that he drove sailors onto the roofs of buildings and surrounding trees. At the beginning of 1998, Grom was gone. Died. And soon Margot gave birth to his daughter Dasha. On the third try.

1998 also marked the end of the oceanarium in Vityaz Bay (in other fleets, similar special facilities ceased to exist along with the USSR, to the delight of the adversary). By the way, the Americans, unlike us, did not go crazy and even after the end of the Cold War they did not destroy anything, but retained all their centers for training marine animals to perform special tasks (in total they now have about 150 dolphins “under arms” and sea ​​lions, the same number as there were in the USSR). Representatives of this special forces, by the way, are now successfully serving in combat off the coast of Iraq.

At the time of the collapse of the Pacific detachment of combat pinnipeds underwater swimmers (and everything had been going towards this since the early 90s, and it held on only thanks to enthusiasts - employees of the aquarium), there remained four beluga whales - Bion, Bob, Mamon and Jeri - and sea lions Margo with their daughter Dasha (the rest died of hunger or fled and died in the wild). Starvation also threatened these remnants of the once formidable special forces, essentially abandoned to the mercy of fate by the military department and the state. With great difficulty, in the fall of 1998, the sea animals were transported to Moscow, where they began to entertain the idle public, who had no idea about the past military life of these belugas and sea lions. This was the end of the annals of our pinniped special forces.

IN During the Great Patriotic War, animals also fought alongside people.
They were used by both the Red Army and fascist units. The main burden of the war fell, of course, on the horses and dogs. But pigeons, camels, mice and even moose also helped. Cats, who were mainly responsible for the comfort and mood of soldiers in kitchens and infirmaries, but not only, did not stand aside. Cats “served” on submarines and at “Civil Defense” points, warning of air raids...

During World War II, the Nazis considered cavalry obsolete. However, with skillful command, cavalry was an effective branch of the army. The Nazis were especially afraid of mounted raids on the rear. This is what German General Halder wrote in his memo: “We are constantly faced with cavalry units. They are so maneuverable that it is not possible to use the power of German technology against them. The realization that not a single commander can be calm about his rear has a depressing effect on the morale of the troops.” The cavalry corps of General Dovator alone tied down the rear of three German armies. Although the Second World War is called the war of engines, cavalrymen fought in it on an equal basis with other branches of the military.

Of course, a horse is weaker than a motorcycle, but on a horse you can get through where a car or motorcycle cannot.

Even in 1945, there was work for the cavalry: the Cossacks took part in the Berlin operation, the cavalry division of General Blinov blocked the road to Dresden and saved 50 thousand prisoners of war. The Cossacks of Baranov's corps were the first to come to the aid of the rebel Prague. They made a forced march together with the tankers in an extremely short time.

Speaking about the participation of cavalry in the Great Patriotic War, we must not forget the horses of the front roads. And the infantry, and artillery, and communications, and the medical battalion, and especially the kitchens, were helped out by “horse traction” in the spring and autumn muddy times. Carts often got stuck in the mud above the wheels, and then the loads were packed into bales, and a reliable horse pulled them on a pack saddle.

Guerrilla warfare, as commander Kovpak admitted, would have been simply impossible without horses.

The number of horses was huge - about three million. Even in a rifle regiment the state was supposed to have three hundred and fifty horses. At the beginning of the war, the Germans had fewer horses, although the Wehrmacht also had cavalry units. However, having come from Western Europe to the Russian off-road, the Nazis quickly realized the advantages of “four-legged” traction...

We must not forget about camels and deer.

The dogs helped a lot. They performed various combat missions: border protection, delivery of ammunition and food, removal of the wounded from the battlefield, detection of snipers, signal dogs, mine detection dogs, guard dogs, reconnaissance dogs, sabotage dogs - tank and train destroyer dogs.

Regiments, battalions, detachments and companies of military dog ​​breeding operated on all fronts of the war. In total, 68 thousand Sharikov, Bobikov and Mukhtarov, mostly mongrels, walked, drove and ran along military roads from Moscow to Berlin, but they all made an invaluable contribution to the Great Victory over the enemy.

Probably everyone knows about the 4 tankers and the dog...

Already in July 1941, the first battalion of tank destroyers using demolition dogs was sent to the front. Several more followed. The successful use of demolition dogs came as a complete surprise to the enemy.

The German command issued special instructions on how to combat tank destroyer dogs. Often, simply the appearance of dogs on the parapet of a trench forced the fascist tanks to turn around, which, by the way, was sometimes used by cunning infantry, taking advantage of the fascist “to scare.” During the Great Patriotic War, service demolition dogs destroyed over 300 tanks (including 63 during the Battle of Stalingrad), assault guns and many other military equipment, weapons and manpower of the enemy.

Mine detection dogs - there were about 6 thousand of them - were discovered, and sapper leaders neutralized 4 million mines, landmines and other explosives. Our four-legged mine detectors cleared mines in Belgorod, Kyiv, Odessa, Novgorod, Vitebsk, Polotsk, Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Berlin.

Sled dogs - about 15 thousand teams, in winter on sledges, in summer on special carts under fire and explosions, took about 700 thousand seriously wounded from the battlefield, transported 3,500 tons of ammunition to combat units, and also delivered food to the front line.

It is worth noting that the orderly for 80 people carried out from the battlefield was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. “Each team replaced at least three or four orderlies. Evacuation with the help of medical harnesses is carried out quickly and painlessly for the wounded.” Now our army and medicine neglect dogs, but in vain...

Medical dogs found seriously wounded soldiers in swamps, forests, ravines and brought orderlies to them, carrying bales of medicines and dressings on their backs

« ...Because of the heavy fire, we, orderlies, could not get to our seriously wounded fellow soldiers. The wounded needed urgent medical attention, many of them were bleeding. There were only a few minutes left between life and death... Dogs came to the rescue. They crawled up to the wounded man and offered him his side with a medical bag.

They waited patiently for him to bandage the wound. Only then did they go to someone else. They could unmistakably distinguish a living person from a dead person, because many of the wounded were unconscious.

The four-legged orderly licked the face of such a fighter until he regained consciousness. In the Arctic, winters are harsh, and dogs have more than once saved the wounded from severe frosts - they warmed them with their breath. You may not believe me, but the dogs cried over the dead....”

Thanks to the invaluable help of his four-legged soldiers, only one private, Dmitry Trokhov, was able to take 1,580 wounded soldiers from the front line.

Signal dogs - in difficult combat situations, sometimes in places impassable for humans, delivered over 120 thousand combat reports, covering 8 thousand km to establish communications. telephone wire. Sometimes, even a seriously wounded dog crawled to its destination and completed its combat mission. From a report from the headquarters of the Leningrad Front: “6 communication dogs... replaced 10 messengers (messengers), and the delivery of reports accelerated 3-4 times.”

German snipers hunted dogs: there is a known case when the dog Alma, while performing a combat mission - delivering a package with a report - was wounded twice by a sniper, in the ear and jaw. But with the third shot, the sniper, who wanted to finish off the dog, did not succeed: she dodged and, seriously wounded, still crawled to the Soviet trenches. The number of combat reports delivered numbered in the thousands: in one year, Mink was able to deliver 2,398 reports, Rex the dog - 1,649 reports. He swam across the Dnieper River several times, was wounded, but always fulfilled his combat mission.

Sabotage dogs were used in Smersh detachments to search for enemy sabotage groups, especially to search for enemy “cuckoo” snipers. Most often, each detachment included 1-2 rifle squads, an operative officer of the NKVD or NKGB, a signalman with a radio station, and a counselor with a search dog.

Cats also helped us win. It was by the behavior of the furry sensors - anxiety, raised fur - that people determined the approaching danger of bombing. While man-made devices only scanned the air for a bomb threat, living, furry “radars” were already alerting people to the danger, thanks to which countless lives were saved.

During World War II, cats were often carried aboard submarines to serve as air purity detectors and to warn of gas attacks. But not only with this and with predictions of bombings did they save people. But also with their own lives.

There are known cases when, during the military famine of the siege of Leningrad, cats brought all the prey to their owners, and they themselves died of hunger. The cats kept the children warm with their little bodies and kept them warm until they froze themselves. And it’s no secret that often cats themselves became food for people... So, in the same besieged Leningrad, during a monstrous famine, almost all of these furry animals were eaten. I have a poignant story about a cat and his owner who survived the siege together.

During the war, the need for cats was great - there were practically none left in Leningrad, rats attacked the already meager food supplies. Four carriages of smoky cats were brought to Leningrad. The train with the “meowing division,” as the St. Petersburg residents called these cats, was reliably guarded. Cats began to clear the city of rodents. By the time the blockade was broken, almost all the basements were cleared of rats.

There were legends about the lucky cat who survived the siege, Maxim. In the post-war period, whole excursions were taken to the house of its owners - everyone wanted to look at this miracle. Maxim died of old age in 1957.

During this monstrous war, no trace remained of the entire vast population of German dwarf cats - kangaroos... The breed was completely exterminated.

For the cats that saved the greatest number of human lives during wartime, a special medal “We also serve our homeland” was established. This award is considered one of the most honorable in the animal world. True, she, unfortunately, did not return the cats’ lives...

Anti-tank mice fought their battles in basements, warehouses and tank engine compartments, far from the well-known human battles. The formation of the first Soviet anti-tank mouse units began in 1941. This was done by Dr. Igor Valenko from Smolensk University.

The mouse, with its ability to penetrate holes up to 4 times smaller than the diameter of its own body, and destroy electrical wiring and small parts, was an ideal tool for disabling tanks and other mechanized means.

The mice were transported to the scene of action on small, almost silent Po-2 planes. The first operation was carried out in the spring of 1942 in the Kirov region. The result must have impressed the leadership of the Red Army, as mice were used more than once in the battles of Stalingrad.

From the memoirs of the German historian Paul Karel, it follows that in the 204th regiment of 104 tanks, rodents disabled 62 units. According to some reports, in this way the Wehrmacht army lost up to 30 percent of its armored vehicles...

The German response to the “machinations of the Russians” was the creation of cat units. They were also thrown into battle against British tanks. Some time later, the British created cable insulation that was inedible for mice, and the cat security units were disbanded.
After undoing the success of his mouse legion, Dr. Valenko was depressed.

Until a new idea came to him: to provide mice with a canine escort from among the dogs already trained and ready to carry out tasks. If you drop one or two dogs along with the mice, this will neutralize the cats and allow the mice to get to their targets. This was already a desperate attempt to preserve the idea of ​​anti-tank mice, but still several dogs were allocated for this purpose.

The few actions carried out had little success. Perhaps because the new German Tigers were practically invulnerable to mice - fuel fumes killed them before they could cause any harm to the electrical wiring. In any case, by 1943 the USSR already had enough traditional anti-tank weapons and no longer needed such exotic versions.

There was even a Wojtek bear in the Polish army. This is the army of Vladislav Anders, formed from Poles deported to the USSR in 1939 in the Middle East.

He did not give precious moments of joy to the soldiers, but he also proved himself to be a real warrior. The bear cub, who grew up among people, was very obedient and peaceful, and did not show any aggression towards the soldiers at all.

He learned to drink beer, and he drank it like other soldiers - from a bottle, holding it in one paw. Wojtek also liked cigarettes, only he, of course, did not smoke them, but chewed them and ate them. It looked very funny when they treated him to a cigarette; he nodded his head in gratitude. The Poles fought well... with beer...

One day, the 22nd company was busy unloading ammunition and delivering it to the guns located on the mountain; the soldiers worked without rest. Wojtek first watched them carefully, and then something completely incredible happened. The bear approached the truck, stood on its hind legs, and extended its front legs forward. Overcoming doubts, the distributor placed a box of ammunition on his paws, and Wojtek carried them up the mountain to the guns.
After that, he returned to the truck and began to pick up the next boxes on his own and carry them without dropping a single shell.

On this day, Polish soldiers completed the task and took the desired height. Wojtek carried out the delivery of ammunition and food for many more days, without fear of either shooting or the roar of guns. Hundreds of people witnessed this miracle, many of whom at first did not believe the stories of eyewitnesses. And when the command “align to the right!” was heard. and he turned his head. He was just a soldier.”... the bear was officially assigned to the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the II Corps of the Polish Army and was on the unit’s coat of arms.

After serving five years in the Polish army, the valiant bear was awarded the rank of corporal.

The troops actively used carrier pigeons. During the war years, more than 15,000 pigeongrams were delivered by carrier pigeons to the Red Army. Pigeons posed such a threat to the enemy that the Nazis specifically ordered snipers to shoot pigeons and even trained hawks to act as fighters. In the occupied territories, Reich decrees were issued to confiscate all pigeons from the population. Most of the confiscated birds were simply destroyed; the most purebred ones were sent to Germany. For harboring potential “feathered partisans,” their owner had only one punishment—death.

The enemy's radar service was being improved and powerful mobile radar units were arriving at the front. Naturally, in some cases our reconnaissance officers were completely excluded from broadcasting using radio stations. Data from reconnaissance groups were the main source of information for preparing military operations.

Therefore, almost every reconnaissance group included a pigeon breeder with 20-30 pigeons placed in baskets woven from willow. The experience of using carrier pigeons in the Great Patriotic War convincingly proved that in many cases winged couriers successfully replaced the most advanced technical means of communication, and in some cases they were the only means of transmitting information from the front line.

The Nazis, among other things, did not disdain pigeon mail.

Animals died and suffered no less in war than people. Many of them (dogs, cats, pigeons) were even awarded state awards.

During the ceremonial parade of 1945, dogs also marched in columns next to their handlers, and one of them, Dzhulbars, was carried in his arms, since he had not yet recovered from his injury received during mine clearance. This dog received the military award “For Military Merit” for detecting 468 mines and 150 shells...

Info and photos (C) Internet. I don’t know if the first photo is photoshopped, but it cut me to the heart...

In May 2018, the so-called “permanent representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea” Boris Babin drew attention to a very interesting topic: the use of dolphins for military purposes.

Dolphins died for the glory of Ukraine?

Babin did this in a very original way, telling the sad story of the death of marine mammals faithful to the Ukrainian oath.

In an interview with the Observer portal, Babin said: “A very sad story is connected with animals, which they told me... Dolphins trained by the Navy in Sevastopol contacted their trainers through special whistles. The Russians received these whistles and all the other special equipment of the corresponding military unit, but the trained animals refused not only to interact with the new Russian trainers. They refused food and died after some time. It’s very sad that many Ukrainian military personnel who were stationed in Crimea in 2014 treated the issue of oath and loyalty to the banner much worse than these dolphins.”

It must be said that Babin’s speech did not impress even the audience loyal to the current Kyiv regime. They simply didn’t believe him, especially since he didn’t really explain where he got the information from. We also remembered the words Advisor to the President of Ukraine Yuri Biryukov, who said back in 2015: “We allocate funds annually to feed dolphins and dogs. But while service dogs remain in the army, we don’t have dolphins. At the same time, we have all this clearly spelled out: how much money we should allocate for dolphins and pregnant dolphins. “The worst thing is that ten times more money is allocated for feeding a dolphin than for feeding one fighter.” So in Ukraine, clever military officials managed to make money even on absent dolphins.

How it all began

We will return to Ukrainian fighting dolphins later. But first, it’s worth remembering how the idea of ​​using sea animals for military purposes came about.

There is information that back in 1915, the famous Russian trainer Vladimir Durov proposed to the fleet command a project to create a “pinniped special forces.” Durov intended to train Far Eastern sea lions in mine clearance. The trainer achieved success in his endeavor, but the German command allegedly found out about this, and soon the animals were poisoned under unclear circumstances. After this, the project was closed.

The story of Durov’s “special forces” can be attributed to the realm of legends. What is known for certain, however, is that by the middle of the 20th century, the military began to show keen interest in the work of scientists who studied dolphins and other marine animals. In 1958, an American neurophysiologist John Cunningham Lilly published the results of a study commissioned by the US Navy. The topic of the work was to study the possibility of using dolphins and certain species of whales for military purposes.

“Cetaceans can be useful in searching for missile warheads, satellites and everything else that human efforts repeatedly fall into the ocean from the sky. They, for example, can be trained to search for mines, torpedoes, submarines and other objects invented by man for naval operations... They can be trained to conduct reconnaissance and patrol duty on ships and submarines,” the researcher concluded.

"Marine Biological Program"

Practical work began in 1960 with experiments with a common dolphin named Notty, which were carried out at the Naval Research Center Pacific in San Diego. The results were positive, and in 1962 the Navy's Marine Biological Program was approved. The Americans trained dolphins to search and detect mines and torpedoes, assist and rescue dolphins and scuba divers, and also to fight enemy saboteurs.

U.S. War Dolphin Program Navy Marine Mammal Program, nicknamed KDog, performs mine clearance in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq War. Photo: Public Domain

Little is known about the actual use of fighting dolphin units in the US Navy. It is alleged that several dozen individuals were involved during military operations in Iraq to clear mines in the waters of Iraqi ports. Information about the use of combat dolphins against enemy saboteurs is secret: in the United States they generally deny that they train mammals to harm people. Nevertheless, unofficial sources report that even during the Vietnam War, dolphins while defending the US Navy base in Cam Ranh destroyed several dozen enemy combat swimmers.

Object "Oceanarium"

Soviet intelligence reports on the work of Americans were placed on the table Admiral Sergei Gorshkov, Commander-in-Chief of the USSR Navy. The naval commander, under whom the Russian navy became an ocean fleet in the full sense of the word, decided that we should not lag behind. True, initially in the USSR the study of dolphins for military purposes was carried out to improve technology. The so-called “Gray's paradox” was studied, according to which dolphins, with less power, develop high speed under water. It was planned to find out the reasons for this phenomenon in order to use this effect in the construction of submarines.

In 1965, the Scientific Research Oceanarium of the USSR Navy was founded in Sevastopol, in Cossack Bay. Its first leader was captain II rank Viktor Kalganov, war hero, intelligence officer, one of the founders of applied hydrobionics in the USSR. Over time, a large complex was built, covering an area of ​​19 hectares and including a large hydraulic complex consisting of three enclosures, swimming pools, pumping and water intake stations, a barracks, a laboratory building and many other auxiliary buildings and structures. Bottlenose dolphins, also known as large or bottlenose dolphins, were captured for the experiments. It is this species that adapts better than others to life in captivity and can be trained.

By the beginning of the seventies, the program to study the “Grey's paradox” was completed, but the aquarium itself did not stop working. Now its specialists are focused on training “dolphin special forces.”

Dolphins found mines faster than minesweepers

Alexander Zhbanov, who headed the aquarium in 1986-1990, said in an interview with RIA Novosti Crimea: “We immediately began working in three areas: search and rescue (assisting divers during their work), searching for mines and fighting saboteurs.”

The combat dolphins did an excellent job of both rescuing people and finding mines and torpedoes. The system worked like this: a special lever was installed on the boat, which the dolphin following the boat had to press if it detected a mine with its natural echolocator. Then he was put on a special muzzle, with the help of which he placed a mark near the mine itself. Dolphins searching for mines completed their task faster than classic minesweepers.

But with anti-sabotage activities everything was somewhat more complicated. A whole scheme for defending the Black Sea Fleet base with the help of dolphins was developed. The “duty” dolphin was located in a special cage, from which it “scanned” the bay. If an enemy was detected, the dolphin pressed a special lever. The cage opened, and the dolphin rushed towards the intruder, and the duty shift received an alarm signal.

Even experts do not have a clear opinion about how effectively such a system worked. When the dolphins were focused on the task, they detected saboteurs 90 percent of the time. But sometimes they were in a bad mood, they were distracted by each other, forgetting about the combat mission. It happened that males, sensing a wild female, “deserted”: this happened in 1983 with a fighting dolphin named Titan.

Not murderers or suicide bombers

But, if a dolphin came out to meet a saboteur swimmer, how was he supposed to neutralize him? Both we and the Americans developed a whole range of “dolphin weapons”, including underwater pistols. However, Soviet experts came to the conclusion that it was not worth making killers out of dolphins. The training was aimed at identifying the saboteur and pushing him to the surface. The combat dolphin was supposed to interfere with the enemy, try to rip off his flippers, and disarm him.

One of the most common tales about fighting dolphins is the story of their training as “suicide bombers” to destroy enemy ships. Experts say that such a program did not exist simply because it is ineffective.

The already mentioned Alexander Zhbankov said in an interview: “To prepare a dolphin, you need to work with it for a year to two years. And after that send him as a demolitionist? On the other hand, assuming this is a theoretical possibility, how much explosive can we attach to a dolphin? 10 kilograms? And what can he do? A torpedo contains 400 kg of explosives, and a mine contains about 400 kg. In addition, the dolphin is easy to eliminate as it approaches the ship: it needs to come up for air every two to three minutes.”

Six instead of 60

The collapse of the Soviet Union hit the aquarium very hard, where about 60 dolphins, as well as sea lions and fur seals were then being trained. Both people and animals were virtually left without funding. Russia and Ukraine, who were fighting for the ship's hardware, did not pay attention to the fighting dolphins. As a result, Ukraine got the unique center, so to speak, on a residual basis. To survive, specialists and animals began to earn money through performances, just like their civilian counterparts. The military program was practically stopped. Only in 2012, the RIA Novosti agency, citing a source in law enforcement agencies in Sevastopol, reported the resumption of the program.

“Currently, at the State Oceanarium of Ukraine in Sevastopol, ten bottlenose dolphins are being trained to perform special tasks for the Ukrainian military fleet; the Ukrainian military regularly trains animals in the waters of Sevastopol to search for objects at the bottom of the sea,” the agency quoted the source as saying.

And in March 2013, the media disseminated a report that the research center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces “State Oceanarium” lost three combat dolphins during training. The center's management, however, denied this information.

“All the animals on the staff of the National Research Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “State Oceanarium” are in their enclosures and in the winter pool. These are six dolphins and one sea lion,” the Ukrainian portal “Correspondent” quoted as saying director of the center Anatoly Gorbachev.

So, at the time of the collapse of the USSR, there were about 60 combat dolphins in service. In 2012 there were ten, and in the spring of 2013 there were only six left. At the same time, according to Gorbachev, three dolphins were used in dolphin therapy classes with disabled children, and the rest “veterans who served their time” simply lived out their lives as pensioners.

Start over

This is approximately how the legendary oceanarium, along with Crimea, came under the jurisdiction of Russia in the spring of 2014. So the heartbreaking story of Petro Poroshenko’s plenipotentiary Boris Babin is a lie from beginning to end. The unique center that Ukraine inherited was practically “buried”, losing 90 percent of the dolphins. Those who remained were unfit for service due to their age. In fact, work on the program in Sevastopol had to start from the very beginning.

In 2016, a real stir was caused by information about a tender announced by the Russian Ministry of Defense for the purchase of five bottlenose dolphins. The department declined to make detailed comments, but it is possible that they were talking about a new conscription into the ranks of the “dolphin special forces.”

The Russian Ministry of Defense does not comment on information about the current state of the program for the use of marine mammals for military purposes: as in the Soviet years, this data is secret.

Will the dolphins be demoted because of robots?

Animal rights activists who believe the use of dolphins for military purposes is immoral may be reassured by the knowledge that such programs may soon become a thing of the past.

At the end of 2012, the Chairman of the Mine Warfare Division of the Directorate for Integration of Capabilities and Resources of the US Navy Headquarters, Captain Frank Linkus, said that in 2017 it was planned to abandon the use of animals to search for mines: “The marine biological program has fantastic capabilities, but robotic systems are already capable of solving similar problems faster and cheaper."

Whether the Americans have actually curtailed their work and whether this applies to all areas of use of combat dolphins is unknown.