--- title: "US Military Loads Explosive-Sniffing Dolphins Into Cargo Plane" description: "Photos emerged this week, on social media, of dolphins loaded into a military transport jet — chilling, like blocks of tofu, in shallow tubs of water." date: "2020-03-09" modified: "2020-03-09" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/us-military-loads-explosive-sniffing-dolphins-cargo-plane" categories: - "Military" - "Science & Energy" tags: - "dolphins" - "military" - "Navy" - "the digest" --- # US Military Loads Explosive-Sniffing Dolphins Into Cargo Plane ![Photos emerged this week, on social media, of dolphins loaded into a military transport jet — chilling, like blocks of tofu, in shallow tubs of water.]() *\Image: Images via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\* ## Cetacean Needed Photos emerged this week, [on social media](), of dolphins loaded into a military transport jet — chilling, like blocks of tofu, in shallow tubs of water. Yeah, it sounds like a hoax. But a spokesperson for the Air Force's 60th Air Mobility Wing [confirmed to military blog *Task & Purpose*]() (or should we say "*Task & Porpoise)* this week that the photos are legit — and that the bottlenose dolphins are part of a crack squad trained to detect underwater explosives. ## Pod Bless The Navy has been training dolphins and sea lions to detect underwater mines and since the 1960s. "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," reads a [Navy web page]() about the program. ## Dolph Pundren The dolphins shown in the photo, a spokesperson for the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command told *Task & Purpose*, were headed to a Naval station in Florida "to maintain their mobile mine hunting capabilities." The Navy says the dolphins are well taken care of — they're transported in fleece-lined tanks, it says on an [info page](), and the flights are overseen by trained veterinarians. **READ MORE:** [Photos show Navy’s mine-sniffing dolphins being transported on Air Force cargo plane]() \[*Task & Purpose*\] **More on dolphins:** [*The Language of Dolphins Could Be Translated by 2021*]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()