Tag Archives: dolphins detecting mines

Impossible to Eliminate: Frogmen, Mines and Dinghies in the 2026 Iran War

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U.S. officials said on March 11, 2026 that Iran had laid mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries 20% of the world’s oil exports from the Persian Gulf to the rest of the world… A U.S. military website describes one class of Iranian mine, the Maham 1, as a circular piece of 1980s-era equipment designed to float in water as shallow as one meter that is equipped with five horns that when struck can detonate up to 120 kilograms—equivalent to 264 pounds—of explosives. The mines are moored on a chain or anchored to the seabed.

The U.S. military said it has destroyed Iranian naval vessels designed for setting mines…Yet Iran primarily sets mines using frogmen on small boats that resemble ordinary fishing vessels, an informal maritime militia of dinghies that is virtually impossible to identify and eliminate.  Iran also has an arsenal of limpet mines that divers can attach to the hulls of ships magnetically or with a nail gun.

Excerpt from James T. Areddy et al., Iran’s Sea Mines Are One of Its Most Powerful Weapons, WSJ, Mar. 11, 2026


Military Uses of Dolphins

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The U.S. NAVY MARINE MAMMAL PROGRAM: Since 1959, the U.S. Navy has trained dolphins and sea lions  to help guard against threats underwater….Dolphins naturally possess the most sophisticated sonar known to science. Mines and other potentially dangerous objects on the ocean floor that are difficult to detect with electronic sonar, especially in coastal shallows or cluttered harbors, are easily found by the dolphins. Both dolphins and sea lions have excellent low light vision and underwater directional hearing that allow them to detect and track undersea targets, even in dark or murky waters. They can also dive hundreds of feet below the surface, without risk of decompression sickness or “the bends” like human divers. Someday it may be possible to complete these missions with underwater drones, but for now technology is no match for the animals…Dolphins are trained to search for and mark the location of undersea mines that could threaten the safety of those on board military or civilian ships..
How do the animals travel to remote work sites? By airplanes and helicopters (yes!)

Excerpt from US Naval Information Warfare Center