Wanted: Dolphins For Russian Combat Missions

Russia is looking for five combat dolphins, in an echo of its Soviet-era use of the animals for military tasks.

Officials are seeking two female and three male dolphins between the ages of three and five, with perfect teeth and no physical problems, according to public documents.

The dolphins need to be delivered before August to the military in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, which has housed a training centre for the animals since 1965.

The centre was badly dilapidated after the Soviet Union collapsed and the dolphins were reportedly sold to Iran.

Ukraine's navy revived the centre in 2012 but, after the Russians annexed Ukraine two years later, the centre came under their control.

A source told RIA Novosti state news agency in 2014 that new training programmes were being planned to train the dolphins to serve the Russian military.

During the Cold War, dolphins were used to find submarines, underwater mines and suspicious objects near harbours and ships.

According to retired colonel Viktor Baranets, who saw this training, the dolphins were part of the arms race between the USSR and the US.

He said the US had looked into the abilities of dolphins first "but when Soviet intelligence found out the tasks the US dolphins were completing in the 1960s, the defence ministry at the time decided to address this issue".

The dolphins were trained to plant explosives on enemy ships and could find abandoned torpedoes in the Black Sea.

The US also still uses sea mammals for military purposes, with sea lions having been deployed to Bahrain in 2003.