Russian Navy beluga whales found in Norway
Norwegian fishermen spotted a beluga whale with camera harnesses on April 25, which is reportedly trained by the Russian Navy as part of Russia's plan to use underwater mammals as part of a special operations force, according to the British newspaper The Guardian. The beluga whale was found in the Barents Sea off the northeast coast of Norway and, according to Norwegian fishermen, has been rubbing close to the fishing boat, apparently to remove the restraint belt marked with the "St. Petersburg Equipment" tag and with a GoPro camera attachment point.
Dolphins train to clear mines
There is an institute in St. Petersburg that cooperates with the Russian military to study animals for war purposes, tested in the Black Sea and Cossack Bay in Murmansk, where the Russian military has been trying to work with beluga whales, but it is unclear whether they can already be used for reconnaissance or intelligence operations. According to the BBC, in 2000 the Russian Navy would train dolphins that could kill enemy frogmen or attach mines to enemy ships, as well as sea lions, walruses, sea lions, seals and beluga whales to Iran.
Dolphin warriors trained by the U.S. military
It is understood that the Soviet Union/Russia trained dolphins and beluga whales to attack enemy frogmen, shooting frogmen with fish darts mounted on their backs, or grabbing frogmen with their mouths and dragging them to the surface of the water for naval personnel to capture; dolphins and beluga whales were also trained as "live torpedoes", carrying mines to detonate when approaching enemy ships. Russia launched a program to train the use of marine mammals long ago and made it public in 2017 when the Russian Defense Ministry's Zvezda television network reported that the Russian Navy was working with a private research institute to train beluga whales and other marine mammals.
The vandalism of ships in ports has always been a problem
The U.S. Navy on the other side has also shown no weakness in combating marine mammals. The U.S. Navy's Marine Mammal Program uses trained bottlenose dolphins and sea lions for a variety of search and reconnaissance missions, dolphins trained to search for and mark mines, and sea lions to connect routes to retrieve sunken seafloor equipment in places where human divers can't reach them. Dolphins and sea lions in the U.S. Navy can also assist security personnel in detecting and arresting underwater frogmen who may be trying to commit vandalism, such as guarding against frogman vandalism while ships are anchored in harbors.
Such underwater special forces are not strong
Recently, Peraton corporation was awarded a $12 million unmanned maritime systems support contract (UMSS) to provide the U.S. Navy with 30 months of indefinite delivery/indefinite number of marine mammals, and Pellaton has been working highly professionally for the U.S. Navy's Marine Mammal Program since 2004. The latest U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program contract is one of seven orders peraton offered under UMSS for the Pacific Maritime Systems Division for unmanned maritime systems involved in mine protection measures.