Kamikaze dolphins in Iran? A brief history of dolphins in the military

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday shut down the idea that Iran could weaponize marine mammals in the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran continues as he fielded a question about the potential use of “kamikaze dolphins.”

Experts say the idea isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem. Several countries, including the U.S., have a history of using dolphins in conflict areas, though not as weapons.

“I cannot confirm or deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins, but I can confirm they don’t,” Hegseth said at the briefing.

Hegseth’s comments came in response to news reports about the possibility. The Wall Street Journal reported April 30 that Iranian officials had said Iran could use “mine-carrying dolphins” to attack U.S. warships. It is not clear whether Iran has that capability.

The term “kamikaze” was popularized during World War II for pilots flying suicide missions into their targets.

The U.S. Navy Office of Information declined to comment further, referring CNBC to Hegseth’s Tuesday briefing.

The Strait of Hormuz has been largely blocked during the war, and on Sunday, President Donald Trump announced “Project Freedom,” an operation to free ships stranded in the strait since the onset of the conflict. Hegseth characterized the new mission as “separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury,” the war the U.S. and Israel began waging Feb. 28. He said U.S. forces would not need to enter Iranian waters or airspace to carry out the operation.

Fresh attacks this week in the key waterway reignited fears that the impact on the global economy would worsen. Though a ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran officially remains in place, Iran attacked the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. said it sank Iranian boats in the strait on Monday.

“Right now, the ceasefire certainly holds, but we’re going to be watching very, very closely,” Hegseth said.

Since 1959, the U.S. Navy’s Marine Mammal Program has trained bottlenose dolphins and California sea lions to detect mines and other underwater threats, conduct surveillance and locate and recover objects at sea, according to the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific, a research and engineering laboratory for the U.S. Navy.

“Dolphins have been used in [military] exercises all over the globe,” said Scott Savitz, a senior engineer at global policy think tank Rand Corporation, and an expert on mine countermeasures.

During the Vietnam War, the Navy trained dolphins to detect swimmers and divers who were trying to access military facilities, Savitz said. The mammals also played a “key role” in detecting and clearing naval mines from the port of Umm Qasr during the Iraq War in 2003, he said.

According to Savitz, both dolphins and sea lions are “exceptional” at…