War in Iran: in the Strait of Hormuz, fantasies surrounding the presence of "kamikaze dolphins"

The French Navy regularly uses Airbus Dauphin helicopters, transported by the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle. In the Strait of Hormuz, Iran may be using kamikaze dolphins. No blades on these new weapons but many animals trained by the Iranian army. In an article from Washington PostIranian officials said they could use “previously unused weapons to attack U.S. warships, from submarines to mine-carrying dolphins.”

If the affair may be surprising, it does not make the American army laugh, while Pete Hegseth confirmed that the Iranians were indeed using these animals. On the other hand, the American Secretary of Defense decided that he would “neither confirm nor deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins”. A psychological battle between the two belligerents while no presence of trained dolphins has been confirmed for the moment since the start of the conflict. Moreover, a source close to the American army told CNN that the American army did not use them.

A béluga baptized Hvaldimir

However, the hypothesis that the two armies use these marine mammals as weapons is not improbable. Since the late 1950s, the US Navy has run an animal training program, training sharks, sea turtles and seabirds. Today installed at the Point Loma naval base, California, it relies mainly on dolphins and sea lions, trained to “mark the location of underwater mines” and “apprehend unauthorized swimmers and divers”, details the program’s website.

But this use of marine animals in times of war is not exclusively American. In 2022, according to the US Naval Institute, the Russian army deployed trained dolphins in the port of Sevastopol in Crimea to protect a naval base. A way to avoid Ukrainian infiltrations which would attempt to sabotage ships. According to this same survey, Russia uses these same types of animals in the northern Arctic but also belugas. In 2019, one of them was filmed by fishermen off the coast of Norway. Named Hvaldimir, the marine mammal made the rounds on social networks as it approached a Norwegian boat. He was found dead on August 31, 2024, without the conditions of his death being clarified.

A fragile ceasefire

Faithful to its military proximity with Russia, Iran purchased dolphins in the 2000s but there is no evidence to suggest that it can use them today, while the Iranian army does not seem to have an active and effective program, unlike the Russians and the Americans. For the moment, the use of these marine animals remains only at the threat stage.

If dolphins were deployed in Iraq in 2003, they were deployed after the end of the fighting and were used to detect the presence of mines around the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr. Despite a provisional ceasefire agreement concluded between the two countries, tensions remain high in the Strait of Hormuz and fighting can resume at any time, which does not allow the use of marine mammals. And the use of “kamikaze dolphins” would be a way of violating this agreement, declared Pete Hegseth last April.