Yes, it's for real.
I used to be in the dolphin training world, after all, and I picked up a few things here & there along the way. Naval dolphins are used for all sorts of things, but just as the article says, their primary job is that of sentry.
Dolphins don't sleep. They don't need to see in the dark. They are very intelligent, very powerful, and easily trained.
These qualities make them very suited to the job of hanging around sensitive areas and eliminating anyone who comes too close, such as a diver who doesn't know the signal to let the dolphin know he's a friendly.
I don't know about the whole drug-dart thing, but I don't discount it. However, sentry dolphins certainly don't need any tools other than their own tails to put a stop to any enemy shenannigans. A dolphin can easily snap a man in half with a single tail-flick, and with the right training, they're pretty good at it.
This isn't really classified information or anything, but as you might imagine, it's not something they like to talk about, either.
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