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Published on: 06/05/2026 - 23:34

As tensions intensify around the Strait of Hormuz, a rumor is growing: Tehran has deployed “kamikaze dolphins” to target American ships. Washington denies it, and Iranian media call the assertion "bizarre." Indeed, there is no proof of their existence. However, military programs did use dolphins during the Cold War and the US Navy still works with these mammals, particularly to detect mines.

It all starts with a quote from Iranian officials in the Wall Street Journal. The daily mentions that, faced with the American blockade, Tehran could resort to "unprecedented weapons", citing mini-submarines... and the potential use of mine-carrying dolphins.

Immediately, the web filled with artificial intelligence-generated images of dolphins wearing harnesses loaded with explosives. Internet users say this would be the last resort of a desperate Iran hoping to lift the blockade imposed by US Navy destroyers.

However, no evidence of such an operation exists. Iranian media even described the rumor, which has never been confirmed by Tehran, as “bizarre”.

On X, the Iranian representation in Hyderabad chose to ridicule the idea with the AI-generated image of “Admiral Fin Flint, dolphin bomber”. Like a card game character, he would be fast, undetectable and above all: always in a good mood. If it existed.

Yes, “soldier dolphins” exist

But if this story seems to be fiction, the militarization of cetaceans is very real. Satellite images suggest that North Korea attempted to develop such a program around 2015-2016.

Russia, for its part, deployed dolphins off its bases in Syria in 2018, then in the Black Sea from 2022 to protect its fleet from possible Ukrainian divers.

Several evidences of such programs exist. In 2019, a mysterious beluga whale was found in Norway wearing a “St. Petersburg gear” harness. Nicknamed "Hvaldimir", the Internet mascot had been accused of being a Kremlin spy cetacean.

Also read: Hvaldimir, the “beluga spy”, would have helped decipher the language of cetaceans

A dolphin's biological capabilities surpass any man, robot or drone: it dives 200 meters, reaches 60 km/h and has high-frequency sonar that allows it to detect an object several hundred meters away.

It is therefore not surprising that since the Cold War, the Americans and Soviets have used the animal. According to the BBC, the latter would have trained dolphins to "attack enemy ships and divers", using harpoons attached to their backs, or even to "carry out kamikaze attacks" with mines.

“Soviet killer dolphins” sold to Iran?

After the fall of the USSR, the program of military use of dolphins stopped. According to a study published in 1998 by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, around 40 of them were exported to foreign aquariums in the 1990s. Of these, 20 died due to lack of proper care, and nine were ultimately returned to Russia.

But some stayed with their trainer Boris Zhurid in Sevastopol in Crimea. After ten years in a private aquarium, the former Soviet submariner could no longer find the funds to take care of his protégés. Short of means to feed his animals, he accepted the offer of an Iranian tourism magnate who suggested he create the country's first dolphinarium.

At the time, the Russian press was worried about Ukraine selling its “secret weapon” cheaply to Tehran. But Boris Zhurid assured him: his research on the island of Kish, in Iran, would be purely scientific and environmental. The trail of Soviet dolphins sold to Iran ends there. And if the dolphinarium still exists, their life expectancy in captivity rarely exceeds 20 to 25 years. The “recruits” of the year 2000 are therefore, in all probability, deceased.

Also read: Have the Ukrainian fighting dolphins moved to the Russian camp?

Does the United States have soldier dolphins?

Asked about the subject of kamikaze dolphins during his press briefing on Tuesday, May 5, the American Minister of Defense, Pete Hegseth, confirmed that Iran did not have such specimens. But he remained more evasive on American capabilities, refusing to “confirm or deny” their use by the US Navy.

However, American Navy programs with dolphins and even sea lions have existed since at least 1959. The animals have already been deployed in Viet Nam or more recently in Iraq in 2003. They would now be used exclusively for mine clearance or object recovery missions, once hostilities have ceased.

No dolphins have ever died in combat (until 2023) and the program complies with the Marine Mammal Protection Act, according to Mark

But several animal rights associations regularly denounce the immorality of enlisting sentient beings in human conflicts.

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