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Comment by Labo333 | Hacker News Reader

I think I can believe most but that part is really weird:

> For protection against enemy divers, dolphins will swim up to the infiltrator, bump into them and place a buoy device on their back or a limb using their mouth. The buoy then drags the outed diver to the surface for easy capture. When trained sea lions perform the same maneuver, they use a kind of handcuff with their mouths to attach the buoy

Imagine if we did this on land: monkeys or dogs handcuffing or tasing people! Surely they wouldn't be deployed against civilians and I know there have been exotic animals travelling with military (like bears) but training animals to fight humans with TOOLS looks incredibly hard.

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We might never know what is currently in use, but I'm convinced that any wild and wacky idea has been tried by somebody. Some fun ones off the top of my head:

- Meet Wojtek the bear: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)

- AT-Dogs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-tank_dog

- Ships made of ice and saw dust: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Habakkuk

- Funny tanks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobart%27s_Funnies

- Pink camouflage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountbatten_pink

- Gay Bomb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb

- LSD Trials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziqpwkhqTRs

- Portable nuclear launcher: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davy_Crockett_(nuclear_device)

Also dogs don't need to attach handcuffs, it suffices that they chomp on your leg. And that they can be trained for easily enough.

My contribution to your already wonderful list: The Bat Bomb, aka Project X-Ray https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb

Olga answered that the murder of the messengers sent to Kiev, as well as the events of the feast night, had been enough for her. She then asked them for a small request: "Give me three pigeons...and three sparrows from each house."[15] The Drevlians rejoiced at the prospect of the siege ending for so small a price, and did as she asked.

Olga then instructed her army to attach a piece of sulphur bound with small pieces of cloth to each bird. At nightfall, Olga told her soldiers to set the pieces aflame and release the birds. They returned to their nests within the city, which subsequently set the city ablaze.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olga_of_Kiev#Drevlian_Uprising

And pigeon guided bombs: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pigeon

came here to say this one

Psychic spies: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project

"The Men Who Stare At Goats" is a delightful book that was made into a film about the subject.

More practically, bouncing bomb: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouncing_bomb

This truly sounds a bit sketchy. From an outsiders perspective this sounds like a big april fools joke.

Well, I mean dogs are widely and effectively used in law enforcement. Perhaps dolphins are just the equivalent of aquatic dogs.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2022/01/12/the-un...

World War II , anti-tank dogs (dogs with AT mines strapped to their backs).

If memory serves, the story goes that the soviets trained their dogs with soviet tanks - so when they released the dogs into battle, they turned around and ran for their own tanks.

Possibly apocryphal, but quite funny.

It wasn't so much about the design of the tank as I recall. Instead it was about one side using diesel tanks, with the other side using gasoline in their tanks. The dogs turned out to be trained on the smell of the fuel, which caused them to be attracted to the wrong vehicles.

I can see the highway signs now:

SPEED CONTROLLED BY

HAWK

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