Russian military plans to buy 5 bottlenose dolphins

Russia to revive its combat dolphine program (Pic: news.com.au)

Moscow (IINA) – Russia's Defense Ministry plans to buy five bottlenose dolphins for 1.75 million rubles ($24,000), according to an acquisition tender.
The ministry would not disclose why it needs the aquatic mammals that can be trained as combatants, Russia Today (RT) reported.
The military wants three males and two females to be shipped to Sevastopol before August 2016, according to the terms of the tender. The animals must be three to five years old and measure 2.3 to 2.7 meters long.
The ministry would not disclose why it wants the five dolphins, but the tender reignited speculation that Russia has restarted a program for training combat dolphins. A counterpart for the US Navy Marine Mammal Program, the Russian scheme was launched in the Soviet Union in the 1970s.
The only Soviet dolphin training facility was based in Crimea's Sevastopol, and went to the Ukrainian Navy after the collapse of the USSR. After the annexation of the peninsula by Russia in 2014, the military aquarium went to the Russian Navy.
Later in the same year, some media reported that the Russian military had conducted exercises for combat dolphins, but the Defense Ministry denied this and said the program had been suspended because Russia had no need for soldier animals.
AB/IINA

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