Advances in drone technology not only are replacing the need for cockpit pilots, but also dolphins used by the U.S. Navy.

Based in San Diego, the Navy’s $28-million marine mammal program currently uses 80 bottle-nosed dolphins and 40 California sea lions for a variety of tasks. The dolphins’ tasks include patrolling harbors to keep ports safe from enemy intruders. They also bring back objects from deep water as well as locate unwelcome swimmers. Sea lions perform a sort of citizen’s arrest if they find a swimmer who doesn’t belong, by attaching a claw-like apparatus.

The mammals’ work has taken them to such overseas locations as Iraq and Bahrain, where they have protected U.S. vessels during wartime by spotting mines and other underwater threats. In the United States, they guard Navy submarine bases. Only 24 of the dolphins are involved in mine hunting.

But now the Navy is developing an underwater drone shaped like a torpedo that can do many of the same tasks performed by dolphins. Once available, the 12-foot robots can be built in much less time than it takes to train mammals, about seven years.

The once-secretive program has been dogged by controversy over the treatment of the animals and speculation as to the nature of its mission and training since its de-classification in the early 1990s.

By 2017, many of the Navy’s 80 dolphins will be reassigned to other jobs. 

Sea lion jobs are safe for now.

–Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Navy Dolphins Losing out to Robots (by Jeanette Steele, San Diego Union-Tribune)

Navy Lays Off Dolphins, Replaces With Robots (by Alisa Manzelli, Global Animal)

80 Dolphins Work Classified Missions for U.S. Navy (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Navy to Employ Dolphins and Sea Lions to Protect Submarine Base (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)