These images do not prove that Iran has unveiled kamikaze dolphin drones
Social media users are claiming that the Iranian military has unveiled a new type of kamikaze underwater drone shaped like a dolphin. However, the photos circulating as evidence have been generated by AI.
Issued on: 12/05/2026 - 16:57Modified: 12/05/2026 - 17:10
3 min Reading time Share By: The FRANCE 24 Observers / Quang Pham
Does the Iranian military have kamikaze dolphins in its arsenal? According to the Wall Street Journal, Iranian officials reportedly considered using "mine-carrying dolphins" to attack US ships enforcing a blockade of Iranian ports. When questioned during a Pentagon briefing, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth denied any use of "kamikaze dolphins" by Iran.
While the existence of such dolphins remains unproven, rumours continue to swirl on social media. According to several online users (see here and here), these alleged kamikaze dolphins are not cetaceans trained to attack enemy vessels, but rather drones secretly developed over the last 20 years.
To support these claims, users are sharing two photographs purportedly showing two different drone models.
One photo depicts a dark grey "dolphin drone" that closely resembles the real animal, manoeuvring near a warship.
A second image shows a less realistic model, reportedly unveiled at an arms exhibition hosted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the ideological arm of Iran’s military.
However, none of these images is authentic; they were generated by AI.
Flag anomalies and ballistic missile naming errors
The first photograph depicting a "dolphin drone" navigating alongside a naval vessel was created using Google's AI. When processed through SynthID – the artificial intelligence detection tool developed by Google – the analysis revealed an embedded watermark. This confirms the image was produced by Nano Banana, Google’s generative AI image model.
The second image, which purports to show a "dolphin drone" at an arms exhibition hosted by the Revolutionary Guard (also known as the “Pasdaran”), contains several anomalies that reveal it to be AI-generated.
Specifically, the Revolutionary Guard’s emblem – depicting an arm holding an assault rifle against a globe – appears on a banner in the background with two distinct errors.
First, it fails to display the digits representing the year 1357 in the Persian calendar (written as ۱۳۵۷ in the image). This corresponds to 1979 in the Gregorian calendar – the year of Ayatollah Khomeini’s rise to power. This historical reference is a standard feature in every official depiction of the Revolutionary Guard's emblem.
Another anomaly in the AI-generated image is the depiction of the globe, which fails to form a perfect circle, unlike the authentic insignia.
Furthermore, a Revolutionary Guard flag on the right side of the image exhibits several inconsistencies.
As with the Revolutionary Guards’ emblem on the banner, the reference to the year 1357 is missing. Moreover, the Iranian national colours – green, white and red – are incomplete on the IRGC flag, which lacks the red stripe.
A final anomaly appears in the Persian inscription on the drone, which labels it an "intelligent underwater vehicle Qadr-110." In the Iranian military arsenal, the Qadr-110 is actually an intermediate-range ballistic missile designed for aerial launch. It bears no relation to an underwater drone.
This article has been translated from the original in French.
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