Russia spends a lot of money to buy warrior dolphins

(Baonghean.vn) - The Russian military announced on March 10 that it plans to purchase five combat dolphins for the Crimean peninsula. This reminds many people of the Soviet Union's training plans during the Cold War.

A dolphin at a marine mammal training center in Crimea on March 30, 2014. Photo: AFP.

According to documents published on the Russian government's website, the country's military will spend 1.75 million rubles (about 24,300 USD) to buy 2 female dolphins and 3 male dolphins on August 1.

The dolphins will be taken to a military training center for marine mammals located in Sevastopol, a port of Russia's Black Sea Fleet located on the Crimean peninsula.

The Soviet Union and the United States trained dolphins to detect mines or suspicious objects underwater and near their warships during the Cold War.

According to Viktor Baranets, a retired officer who trained dolphins for the Soviet Union, the mammals were used in the context of the arms race between the two superpowers and the Americans began their training plans before the Soviets. It was only in the 1960s that Soviet intelligence discovered the Americans were training dolphins and decided to carry out a similar plan.

Mr. Viktor Baranets said that the dolphins were trained by the Soviet Union to carry explosives onto enemy ships as well as detect torpedoes or sunken ships at the bottom of the Black Sea.

As for the reason for bringing dolphins to the Crimean peninsula, experts explain that there used to be a marine animal training center there that was built in 1965. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the center was closed and the dolphins were sold to Iran. In 2012, the Ukrainian navy reopened the center and it is now under the control of Moscow.

Russia's Ria Novosti news agency quoted an anonymous source as saying that the Russian armed forces' dolphin training program had been prepared since 2014. However, the Russian Defense Ministry did not comment on the matter.

Chu Thanh

(According to Le Parisien)