A New Kind of Cold War Weapon
At the height of Cold War tension the United States explored an unusual military idea. By the early 1960s naval officials were quietly capturing live dolphins to support national security. What began as research into their hydrodynamics soon shifted into a classified effort to train dolphins for underwater missions.
These animals would eventually guard nuclear stockpiles near Seattle and carry out mine detection tasks in conflict zones around the world.
How the Navy Turned to Dolphins
The program started in 1960 with a Pacific white sided dolphin named Notty. Researchers sought insight into her swimming abilities to design faster torpedoes. Their attention changed when they studied her sonar. Dolphins detect and classify objects with precision that still exceeds modern technology. With this ability they could identify and locate underwater mines faster than any machine.
The Navy developed a simple procedure. A dolphin found a mine then returned to its handler to receive a marker flag tied to a rope. The dolphin attached the flag beside the mine allowing divers to deal with it safely.
Dolphins also patrolled restricted zones. When they encountered an intruder underwater they clamped a device to the diver’s air tank. The device connected to a surface buoy that alerted handlers. These animals were deployed in Vietnam where five dolphins guarded an ammunition pier in Cam Ranh Bay through the early 1970s.
In the 1980s dolphins protected the Third Fleet flagship in Manama Harbor during the Iran Iraq War. In 1996 dolphins worked off the coast of San Diego during a bomb scare. In 2003 they entered the Persian Gulf to clear mines during the United States invasion of Iraq.
A Modern Military Program
By 2015 the Navy Marine Mammal Program in San Diego cared for about 85 dolphins and 50 sea lions. Earlier reports indicated annual program funding of about 14 million dollars with Pentagon support extending through 2020.
Since 2017 the Navy has worked to phase in underwater drones for many tasks though trained dolphins continue to operate near the submarine base at Kitsap Bangor west of Seattle.
Russia’s Own Military Dolphins
The United States is not alone in this field. In 2016 the Russian Ministry of Defense purchased five bottlenose dolphins from the Utrish Dolphinarium. Russia had previously operated a Soviet era facility in Crimea that trained dolphins for tasks including mine detection and diver capture.
After the fall of the Soviet Union the dolphins and their trainer were transferred to Iran in 2000. Reports from the 1990s and early 2000s described Soviet programs in which dolphins were trained to attack enemy divers or deliver explosive charges.
Former United States Navy personnel have given accounts describing training to counter these tactics. For a brief time after the Cold War some of the former Soviet dolphins participated in swimming therapy sessions for children before disappearing into foreign programs.
Imagine swimming near a nuclear base and learning that the first guards watching you were trained dolphins, not humans.
During the Cold War the United States Navy secretly turned bottlenose dolphins into underwater scouts and sent them on real missions…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/9EDiQztrCx
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) November 17, 2025