New soldiers for a new war.
Apparently the special corps of ‘Combat Dolphins’ were first set up in both the US and Soviet Navies during the Cold War and mainly for defence purposes, yet these marine mammals were also trained to carry out other military tasks and undercover missions that are still classified as secret today. After 40 years of honourable service there are now plans to replace these valiant servicemammals with a new generation of indefatigable marine robots, underwater drones capable of continuous 24-hour patrols, without so much as a fish break.
In the United States, dolphins, seals and other marine mammals are still being trained for military purposes under the Navy Marine Mammal Program (NMMP), at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center at Point Loma, near San Diego in California. The first combat dolphins trained at the centre were sent into combat operations during the Vietnam War.
The military deployment of mammals capitalises on their great intelligence, versatility, fast learning ability, speed of movement and, for dolphins, on their sonar perception. Dolphins, like bats, emit sound waves that bounce back to them in the form of an echo. This enables them to map their surroundings in their brains, allowing them to identify objects such as enemy submarines, unexploded mines or missiles lost in deep waters, all tasks that would be extremely complicated for human beings, even with the aid of modern technology.
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New soldiers for a new war.
Apparently the special corps of ‘Combat Dolphins’ were first set up in both the US and Soviet Navies during the Cold War and mainly for defence purposes, yet these marine mammals were also trained to carry out other military tasks and undercover missions that are still classified as secret today. After 40 years of honourable service there are now plans to replace these valiant servicemammals with a new generation of indefatigable marine robots, underwater drones capable of continuous 24-hour patrols, without so much as a fish break.
