The BBC is reporting that the U.S. Navy is replacing its mine clearance dolphin unit with less costly robots. The Sea Mammal Program, declassified in the 1990s, has been ongoing for 50 years, but will be phased out by 2017. 



The transition to unmanned underwater vehicles comes at a potentially perilous time to mine countermeasures, as Iran has threatened to place these dangerous devices in the Strait of Hormuz. The marine mammals will be replaced with UUVs such as the Knifefish.