Hi Jeff, While I was looking for some pictures of the MK-6 mine, I found something that you're going to find very interesting. When I was in the navy, I knew that navy divers used dolphins for a "classified"' project. But I never knew the specifics or to what extent they were using them for. The navy uses dolphins and sea lions as a defense mechanism to protect ships from "swimmer attacks". They also use them to find mines where our mine warfare ships can't find them. When I saw the picture of the sea lion disarming the mine, my jaw fell down. The following extract can be found at the bottom of this page: http://www.exwar.org/mwp/appendix_d2.htm Best wishes,

Mario Andrade Marine Mammal Systems Marine Mammal Systems (MMS) incorporate specially trained bottlenose dolphins and sea lions for mine detection and neutralization, swimmer defense, and recovery of exercise mines and torpedoes. The Navy's marine mammal program began in 1960 with several dolphins used in hydrodynamic studies addressing underwater missile design. The Navy later studied the animals' special deep-diving and location capabilities and determined that the dolphins and sea lions could be worked untethered in the open ocean. In 1985, the Navy restructured the program to focus exclusively on EOD mission areas and to ensure their "expeditionary" capability to deploy to forward areas. In some situations, the mammals are much more effective than people or existing hardware.



Each "system" comprises four to eight dolphins or sea lions that can be quickly deployed by strategic airlift to any part of the world and can also be worked from ships in forward areas. A total of 26 marine mammals are assigned in five operational Navy MMS Detachments. Three of these MMS Detachments use dolphins (all assigned under EOD Mobile Unit (EODMU) THREE in San Diego, California), and two use sea lions (one MMS Det under EODMU THREE in San Diego and one under EODMU SIX in Charleston, South Carolina). The Naval Space and Electronic Warfare Systems Center, San Diego - formerly NraD - maintains the remainder of the Navy's marine mammal inventory, including spares, research, and retired animals. Descriptions of operational MMS Detachments are provided below:



Mk 4 Mod-0 - Bottlenose dolphins that detect mines and attach neutralization charges on the mooring cables of buoyant, moored mines, including close-tethered mines where the mine case is near the seabed.



Mk 5 Mod-1 - Sea lions that attach recovery pendants to exercise mines and torpedoes and other test objects equipped with acoustic pingers at depths in excess of 500 feet. During the past 20 years, the two teams of four sea lions have successfully recovered more than 95 percent of test mines.



Mk 6 Mod-1 - Dolphins that provide defense for harbors, anchorages, and individual ships against swimmers and divers. Mk 6 dolphins participate regularly in fleet exercises and real-world base security.



Mk 7 - Dolphins that detect, locate, and mark or neutralize proud bottom mines and buried mines, offering the only operational buried-mine detection and neutralization capability in the world.



The Mk 4 and Mk 7 MMS Detachments are routinely employed in integrated MCM operations to rapidly reacquire AMCM contacts and search areas where hardware acoustic systemsare limited. Mk 5 MMS Detachments in San Diego and Charleston, which have the capability to mobilize to any location where their services are required, continue to recover exercise mines and other objects in support of training and operations. Due to their consistent reliability and superb mine detection and classification capabilities, the Navy's MMS Detachments are a valuable tool in joint expeditionary warfare MCM and harbor security operations. http://www.exwar.org/mwp/appendix_d2.htm





