Accelerated Posted March 3, 2003 Report Share Posted March 3, 2003 ROFLMAO - check this out quote:Saddam faces Stealth FlipperMarch 3 2003 The United States could field some unusual stealth weapons in its battle against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein - a battalion of sea lions and dolphins trained as US secret agents . The yelping secret agents are trained to attach a restraint device - a C-shaped, handcuff-like clamp - to the leg of an intruder with their mouths before deploying a floating marker signalling the attacker's position. The dolphins are trained to spot under-sea mines and enemy scuba divers who may be trying to plant explosives in deep waters, while sea lions can work in shallow waters and even up onto land. The military mammals, trained under a special scheme in the California city of San Diego, can play a key role in defending fleets from attacks during war and preventing terrorism at home, their trainers say. The US Navy's Marine Mammal Program boasts a unit of 20 sea lions as well as about 70 dolphins also specially trained to defend US sailors and installations from explosive marine attacks. Sea lions have joined the US fifth fleet that is in Bahrain in a key test of the animals' ability to detect enemy divers menacing the fleet. While the US Navy has used sea lions for recovery missions for the past 30 years, some of them are now being retrained to not only detect enemy divers, but to catch them too. "We train a select small set of sea lions to actually find divers and attach recovery lines to the divers" to allow them to be captured, said Tom LaPuzza who has run the mammal program since its inception in 1960. "Those are the sea lions that are in Bahrain. This is a new capability that we are demonstrating for the first time," he said, adding that if the new recruits did well in their test, they could be used to protect US harbours. LaPuzza said that as far as he knows the United States is currently the only country to use marine mammals in its defence forces after a similar Soviet program launched in the 1960s was shut down due to money problems. He said candidates for the program, which costs between $US10 and $US20 million ($A16.52 and $A33.03 million) per year , were recruited from such sources as San Diego's famed Sea World Aquatic Park. "We get them when they're newborns," he said adding that the mammals lived for around 25 years and never left the service. "They are in the navy for life." Despite tough US rules and a vocal lobby against the exploitation of animals, LaPuzza said his program had not encountered major opposition as the military's use of animals was covered by their national security need. But, despite trainers' insistence that sea lions are too quick to be targeted by the enemy, animal rights groups do not approve of the mammalian mobilisation for war. "To say they're not putting the animals in harm's way is ridiculous," said Stephanie Boyd, a biologist with People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. source Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Accelerated Posted March 6, 2003 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2003 You thought the above was funny? Read on! Apparently during the Second World War, in the late stages of Operation Barbarossa (toward the end of 1941), after most of the standing Red Army had virtually siezed to exist.....and they were having great difficulty countering concentrated blows by German armoured thrusts, the Soviets came up with this idea to break them up. If they could stop the effectiveness and speed of German armoured units they could overwhelm them with sheer numbers, this actually took place when the Russian winters took hold (but this was only 3 months a year). Anyhow....to the point....the Red Army trained dogs(!) to run under tanks(!), then they strapped anti-tank mines onto the dogs. As the Germans advanced the dogs were released to run under the German tanks and exploded(!) disabling the tank. This was done enmass, needless to say the whole thing was a waste of time, coz some 'cardinal issues' were not considered eg. dog afraid of noise from tank/tracks etc. LMAO! Source: A book simply called 'Stalingrad', cant remmber the authors name, but it was a best seller (English language). ------------------------------------------------- Dont know if you had the correspoding Mastercard promotion campaign in the US, on TV. But apparently this add was run on Soviet radio inbetween news from the front: One dog: 10 roublesOne anti-tank mine: 50 roublesThe look on the German tank commanders face as the Soviet dog sacrifices its life for the glory of the Socialist motherland: priceless! LMAO - hahahaha! -------------------------------------------------PS. the dog story IS true. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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