‘Sharks With Laser Beams?’: Pentagon Addresses Claims Of Iran’s ‘kamikaze Dolphins’ In Hormuz

3 min readUpdated: May 7, 2026 12:34 AM IST

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, during a Pentagon press briefing, said that Iran doesn’t have “kamikaze dolphins”, while denying a claim that Iran has trained marine dolphins to carry out suicide attacks against the US forces and commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Hegseth, along with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair General Dan Caine, was asked by a reporter about reports of “kamikaze dolphins” which appeared in some news outlets after Iran claimed it could potentially use weapons which the Islamic nation has till now not used.

Old reports on trained marine mammals resurface

BBC had reported in 2000 that Iran bought “kamikaze dolphins” which were trained to kill for the Russian Navy. The report added that dolphins and other aquatic mammals were trained to attack “enemy” warships.

Pentagon officials respond with skepticism

When asked about Iran deploying “kamikaze dolphins”, Caine replied, “I haven’t heard of the kamikaze dolphins thing. You mean like sharks with laser beams?”

Hegseth, however, left the US question open and said, “I can’t confirm or deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins, but I can confirm they don’t.”

WSJ report fuels speculation on Cold War tactics

The question of “kamikaze” marine dolphins emanated from a Wall Street Journal report which claimed that Iranian officials, at least once, discussed reigniting Cold-war era tactics, including trained dolphins attacking warships in order to break the blockade of Strait of Hormuz by the US authorities.

US clarifies scope of Strait of Hormuz operations

The development came minutes after Hegseth informed that US military’s operation to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz is a “separate and distinct” project from the one launched by President Donald Trump against Iran in the more than two-month-old war.

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‘Project Freedom’ described as limited, defensive mission

“To be clear, this operation is separate and distinct from Operation Epic Fury. Project Freedom is defensive in nature, focused in scope and temporary in duration, with one mission, protecting innocent commercial shipping from Iranian aggression,” Hegseth added.

Trump on Wednesday paused “Project Freedom” after stating that talks with Iran were in “great progress”.

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