Russian dolphins used in Sevastopol to guard against Ukrainian sabotage missions

The Russian navy has placed trained bottlenose dolphins in the port of Sevastopol in Crimea to help protect Black Sea fleet warships from underwater sabotage, new satellite images have disclosed. Two pens with the dolphins have been spotted in the naval base. Dolphins have been trained by the Russians for decades to detect mines and give warning of hostile frogmen. The US has a similar capability. Sevastopol is the headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in the annexed Crimea and was the home base for the guided-missile cruiser, Moskva, which was sunk by Ukrainian anti-ship Neptune missiles on April 14. According to the satellite images analysed by the US Naval Institute, the dolphin pens were placed in the Sevastopol port in February when Russia invaded Ukraine. Dolphins have hyper-sensitive hearing far in excess of humans and have been trained to give warning of potentially hostile objects or frogmen. This capability is known as biosonar. Particularly after the sinking of the Black Sea flagship cruiser, the Russian navy will be on alert for any sign of underwater sabotage operations. The Black Sea Fleet includes three Admiral Grigorovich-class guided-missile frigates which are armed with Kalibr cruise missiles. The Kalibre missile with a maximum range of 1,550 miles has been fired on numerous occasions against targets in Ukraine since the invasion began on February 24. The Sevastopol base also accommodates corvettes which can fire the Kalibr missile, diesel attack submarines, patrol ships and landing vessels. The use of dolphins began in 1965 when the Soviet navy opened a research facility at Kazachya Bukhta near Sevastopol. The mammal training programme was passed to the Ukrainian navy after the Cold War ended. But it was largely neglected until it was revived in 2012. In March 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea the facility once again came under Russian control. In 2016 it was reported that Russia had bought five bottlenose dolphins for 18,000 pounds. The US trains dolphins and sea lions at the naval base in San Diego, California. Russia is also believed to train Beluga whales to carry out underwater missions. In 2019 the Norwegian directorate of fisheries revealed that a Beluga whale had been found wearing a harness with the words "equipment St Petersburg" written on the strap. The Arctic-based whale could have come from the Russian navy's base at Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula.