Both the Russians and Americans trained dolphins to work for their navies during the Cold War. When the USSR fell in 1991, their squad of trained aquatic mammals were turned over to the Ukranians. However, they’ve now defected back to Russia.
Ukraine mainly used the trained Russian dolphins for therapy swimming for disabled children until 2012 when it relaunched the military use of dolphins, reports the Telegraph. The dolphins primarily used buoys to mark the sites of lost weapons or obstacles underwater.
Now, however, the Russians have developed new technology for the dolphins and have taken ownership of them back. An employee of the Russian Navy said, “Our experts have developed new devices, which convert the detection of objects by the dolphins’ underwater sonar to a signal on an operator’s monitor. But the Ukrainian Navy lacked the funds for such know-how, and some projects had to be shuttered.”
There have been reports of a few dolphins escaping in order to find a mate, but hopefully these trained, and vicious, animals won’t be swimming amongst the general population (SEE RELATED: Dolphins will rape and kill you).