CNN With concerns about Iran laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was asked Tuesday whether Iran might turn to dolphins to help confront the US Navy.
He said that he could “confirm” that Iran didn’t have dolphins to deploy as part of operations but said he would neither “confirm or deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins.”
One source familiar with US operations in the Strait of Hormuz told CNN that the US military isn’t using dolphins as part of its efforts in the Strait. But the US Navy does, in fact, have a decades-old program to train dolphins to help detect mines.
The Marine Mammal Program is a part of the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Department within Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific. The department’s dolphins are not kamikaze dolphins in that they do not sacrifice their lives to detonate mines. Instead, they’re focused on detection.