Russia to train five dolphins for its underwater combat fleet

Russia is on the lookout for five combat dolphins and use them to perform military duties underwater in an echo of its Soviet-era use of the animals for military tasks. It seems the search is on for two female and three male dolphins between the ages of three and five - they should have perfect teeth and no physical problems.
The animals are to be delivered before August to the military in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol. This location has been a training center for the animals since 1965. The center was badly dilapidated following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the dolphins were reportedly sold to Iran.
This has been reported in news.sky.com dated 9 March 2016.

Ukraine's navy had revived the center in 2012 but, once the Russians annexed Ukraine two years later, the center has gone back under Russia's control. Therefore, Russia is working out new programs to train the dolphins to serve the Russian military.
During the Cold War, dolphins were used to locate submarines, underwater mines and suspicious objects near harbors and ships. The dolphins were an integral part of the arms race between the USSR and the US. The dolphins were trained to not only plant explosives on enemy ships but could also locate abandoned torpedoes in the Black Sea.
Incidentally, the US even now uses sea mammals for military purposes - sea lions have been deployed to Bahrain in 2003.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Swedish Navy hunting for foreign submarines in the Stockholm archipelago

It seems Cold War is returning - Sweden's military is investigating reports of 'foreign underwater activity' in the Stockholm archipelago dailymail.co.uk. They are using high-tech-equipped naval vessels, aircraft and home guard forces.

As revealed by Chief of operations Jonas Wikstrom, there is some information 'from a credible source' that set in motion the hunt for the submarine. The investigation is believed to be a part of a wider intelligence operation.
Wikstrom has not divulged much but has only sad that the purpose of the exercise was to find out whether 'there had been or still is ongoing foreign underwater activity' by using ships, planes and Territorial Army personnel.
Sweden is neutral and its armed forces have ruled out that it could be some sort of natural phenomenon. Observers see this as reminiscent of the Cold War, when Sweden's armed forces routinely hunted for Soviet submarines in its waters.

Incidentally, the search for the submarine comes in the wake of last month's aerial interception of Russian planes by UK jets when Royal Air Force jets were deployed from Scotland to intercept Russian military 'Bear' aircraft that appeared to be flying too close to the airspace it guards.
Aircraft based at RAF Lossiemouth, based in Moray, were sent to identify the aircraft that turned out to be Tu-95 Russian Bear H bombers and they were spotted in international airspace.