Russia doubles military trained dolphins patrols at its key Crimean naval base
Russia has doubled the number of its military trained dolphins that patrol the waters to protect its main Crimean naval base in Sevastopol from potential Ukrainian attacks, Naval News reported on June 14.
Home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which has been key to Russia’s expanding naval power in the Mediterranean power in recent years, the Kremlin used to rent the base from Ukraine, until annexing the peninsula in 2014.
Naval News reports that it has seen evidence that the number of pens used to house the dolphins in the port has risen and the number of dolphins used on patrols has increased from 3-4 to 6-7.
“The implication is that dolphin patrols have increased in frequency and/or cover more area. The animals will defend against Ukrainian special forces divers, known as combat swimmers, who might otherwise infiltrate the base. The marine mammals have an inherent advantage against even the most athletic combat swimmer; no one can out-swim a dolphin,” Naval News said.
The Russian Navy has placed two dolphin pens at the entrance to Sevastopol harbour, sheltered just inside a sea wall. The pens were moved there in February, around the time of the invasion of Ukraine, according to a review of satellite imagery, the US Naval Institute News reported at the time.
The dolphins perform counter-diver operations, a task that both the US and Russia have previous trained dolphins to perform. The port contains many high-value Russian Navy ships that remain out of range of Ukrainian missiles but are vulnerable to undersea sabotage.
Training dolphins to protect the port goes back to Soviet times when the first training programs were launched, including dolphin training in the Black Sea. The unit was based at Kazachya Bukhta near Sevastopol, where it still is today.
Russia has also made use of Beluga whales to protect colder port of Olenya Guba on its north shores. And in 2018 the Black Sea Fleet’s dolphins were deployed for several months to Russia’s newest Mediterranean Sea naval base in Tartus, Syria, which has become the second focus of Russia’s naval power in the region.
According to unconfirmed reports it appears that Russia has increased the number of dolphins at Sevastopol by stealing more trained dolphins that used to perform in a dolphinarium in the Crimea and retrained them for military purposes.
The use of dolphins to hunt for sub-aqua attack forces is not quite as crazy as it sounds. The Washington Post reported on June 6 that US intelligence knew and warned Ukraine off a plan to blow up the Nord Stream pipelines, which went ahead last September. The charges are widely believed to have been laid by experienced deep-sea divers with special skills.
And Crimea has been subject to other black ops attacks. A huge explosion rocked the Russian airbase in the Crimea last August that is widely believed to have been carried out by Ukrainian commandos that infiltrated the base and laid explosives who possibly arrived by sea.
Russia is tightening its defences after Ukraine’s highly anticipated counter-offensive got under way in the middle of June. Ukraine is currently probing Russia’s defence along the entire line of contact. Kyiv’s stated military goal is to retake all of the occupied territory, including Crimea. Another black ops attack of military installations in Crimea cannot be ruled out.
This is part of a gradual tightening of defences in response to Ukraine’s growing ability to reach the strategic city. Despite the wider focus on missiles and maritime drones, Russia evidently takes the threat of Ukrainian special forces seriously.
The dolphins are part of a multilayer defence that also includes special patrol ships outside the harbour that are supported by helicopters and speedboats. The harbour entrance is blocked by five layers of nets and floating barriers that prevent frontal assaults either on the surface or below it. The dolphins swim inside the booms and alert the guards to divers that have managed to penetrate the defences.
No comments:
Post a Comment