Hegseth and Caine pressed on reports of 'kamikaze dolphins' in Iran waters: 'Like sharks with laser beams?' [View all]
Source: The Independent
Tuesday 05 May 2026 10:35 EDT
A Pentagon briefing on Iran Tuesday took a bizarre turn when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was forced to deny a claim that Iran has trained marine dolphins to conduct suicide attacks against U.S. forces and commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz. Speaking at a press briefing at the Pentagon alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair General Dan Caine, Hegseth was asked about “reports of kamikaze dolphins” that have appeared in some news outlets after Iran claimed it could use previously unused weapons in the two-month-old conflict.
The BBC reported in 2000 that Tehran once purchased dolphins that had been trained for military operations. Caine at first looked incredulous and said, “I haven’t heard the kamikaze dolphins thing” before joking, ‘You mean like sharks with laser beams?” a reference to the 1997 film Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, in which Mike Myers’ character Dr. Evil complains that he could not acquire “sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their heads” and was forced to settle for laser-equipped “mutant sea bass.”
Hegseth then fielded the question, which appeared to emanate from an earlier Wall Street Journal report on Iran grasping for ways to break the Trump blockade of the strait. “I can’t confirm or deny whether we have kamikaze dolphins, but I can confirm they [Iran] don’t,” Hegseth said. The defense secretary added: “That’s what it is.”
The madcap exchange came minutes after Hegseth had claimed the U.S. operation to protect commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz is a “separate and distinct” one from the more than two-month-old war against Iran launched by President Donald Trump and warned Tehran against attacking any American or international commercial traffic transiting the key waterway.
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/hegseth-iran-war-briefing-kamikaze-dolphins-b2970698.html
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