U.S. Obtains Suspected Havana Syndrome Directed Energy Weapon, Finds Russian Components, Launches Secret Testing

U.S. Government Has Obtained Suspected Directed Energy Weapon as New Evidence Reopens the Havana Syndrome Mystery

WASHINGTON — Nearly a decade after American diplomats in Cuba began reporting mysterious neurological symptoms that became known as “Havana Syndrome,” the U.S. government is now studying a portable directed energy device obtained through a secret operation, while new reporting raises increasingly serious questions about whether some anomalous health incidents were caused by a weapon developed or supplied by a foreign adversary.

The existence of the device is no longer based on a single report. CBS News and 60 Minutes reported earlier this year that U.S. authorities covertly acquired a portable device in 2024 that emits pulsed radio frequency energy and contains critical components of Russian origin. Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge has now reported additional details, saying her national security sources describe the equipment as a directed energy weapon obtained from an adversarial power and say investigators have identified technical characteristics associated with a known foreign adversary.

The evidence represents a significant development in one of the strangest unresolved national security controversies of the past decade. It does not, however, establish publicly that Russia ordered or conducted the Havana Syndrome incidents, nor has the U.S. government publicly concluded that the recovered device caused the injuries reported by American personnel. What investigators now possess is something substantially more concrete: physical technology capable of generating the type of pulsed electromagnetic energy that government experts have previously identified as a plausible mechanism for at least some anomalous health incidents.

Secret Operation Obtained Portable Device and Found Russian Components

CBS News reported in January that Homeland Security Investigations quietly acquired the device during the final weeks of the Biden administration in late 2024 using Pentagon funding. Sources familiar with the operation said the government paid more than eight figures for the equipment. The device was described as portable and small enough to fit inside a backpack. It produces pulsed radio frequency energy and contains components of Russian origin. The Pentagon subsequently began testing the equipment to determine its capabilities and whether it could reproduce effects resembling those reported by Havana Syndrome patients.

60 Minutes substantially expanded the story in March, reporting that undercover Homeland Security agents acquired the device through what sources described as a complex Russian criminal network. According to that reporting, critical components were manufactured in Russia, while the weapon’s most important feature may be its software rather than its physical hardware. Sources told 60 Minutes the programming allows the device to generate a specifically shaped electromagnetic wave that rises and falls abruptly while pulsing rapidly. The device was described as silent, concealable, remotely operable and capable of directing energy across several hundred feet and through windows and drywall.

The U.S. military also reportedly tested the device on animals, including rats and sheep, as investigators attempted to understand its biological effects and possible relationship to anomalous health incidents.

Herridge Reports Device Bears Signature of a Foreign Adversary

Herridge’s latest reporting adds another layer to the investigation. Appearing on NewsNation, she said a covert operation involving Homeland Security and other federal partners obtained what her sources characterize as a directed energy weapon from an adversarial power. According to Herridge, investigators examining the device have focused on its internal components, construction and energy characteristics. Her sources stopped short of publicly identifying the country responsible, but she said they consistently described the equipment as bearing the fingerprints of a known foreign adversary.

Russia remains central to the investigation because of the Russian origin components identified inside the device, the reported Russian criminal network involved in its acquisition and decades of Soviet and Russian research involving microwave and electromagnetic technologies. Those facts strengthen the rationale for investigating a Russian connection but do not, by themselves, prove that the Russian government manufactured the recovered device or conducted Havana Syndrome attacks.

U.S. Researchers Were Already Trying to Reverse Engineer Directed Energy Technology

Herridge has separately reported that U.S. government personnel investigating directed energy weapons and attempting to reverse engineer a device were themselves among the people who subsequently reported suspected anomalous health incidents. According to her national security sources, multiple suspected incidents involving personnel working on directed energy technology were reported in 2021. Herridge has reported that more than two dozen suspected incidents occurred inside the United States, including a concentration involving personnel at an off site U.S. government intelligence research facility in Northern Virginia.

That claim, if ultimately substantiated through declassified evidence, could significantly alter the investigation because it would raise the possibility that personnel studying the technology were themselves targeted. For now, however, the reported connection comes primarily from unnamed national-security sources and has not been fully documented in publicly released government records.

It is also important to distinguish between the U.S. government’s efforts to study and reverse engineer directed energy technology and the claim that Washington has successfully reproduced the foreign device. Public reporting establishes that American personnel have investigated and attempted to reverse-engineer the technology; it does not yet establish that the United States has successfully produced an operational duplicate.

A Separate Experiment Produced Unexpected Neurological Symptoms

The recovered foreign device is not the only development that has changed the scientific debate surrounding Havana Syndrome.

The Washington Post reported that a Norwegian government scientist who had been skeptical of Havana Syndrome tested a classified microwave emitting device on himself in 2024 because he expected the exposure to be harmless. Instead, according to the newspaper, he experienced neurological symptoms that resembled some of those reported by American personnel suffering from anomalous health incidents.

The Norwegian experimental device was not the same device covertly obtained by the U.S. government. The two developments nevertheless became important because they independently demonstrated that compact pulsed energy technology could produce physiological effects serious enough to attract attention from Pentagon and White House officials. The results added to earlier findings by an intelligence community expert panel that concluded pulsed electromagnetic energy was a plausible mechanism for producing some of the reported symptoms.

From Havana to More Than 1,500 Reported Cases

The mystery began in 2016 when American diplomats and intelligence personnel stationed in Havana, Cuba, reported sudden and unusual symptoms. Some described hearing strange sounds or experiencing sensations of pressure before developing dizziness, headaches, balance problems, hearing disturbances, cognitive difficulties and other neurological symptoms. Similar incidents were subsequently reported by American personnel in numerous countries and eventually inside the United States. More than 1,500 U.S. government personnel have reported possible anomalous health incidents since the original Havana cases.

The government’s conclusions have changed repeatedly. Intelligence assessments previously concluded that foreign adversary involvement was unlikely in most cases, while acknowledging that intelligence agencies did not all assess the evidence with the same confidence. Other government panels and congressional investigators continued examining whether pulsed electromagnetic energy could explain a subset of the incidents. The acquisition of an actual portable pulsed energy device has now given investigators something they lacked during much of that debate: physical hardware that can be subjected to controlled technical and biological testing.

New Reports Focus on the Autonomic Nervous System

Herridge’s latest reporting also focuses on medical findings involving victims who allegedly suffered damage affecting the autonomic nervous system, which regulates involuntary functions such as heart rate, blood pressure and digestion. She reported cases involving severe cardiac arrhythmias that required pacemakers. Neuroscientist Dr. James Giordano, who has studied directed energy technologies and their possible biological effects, told NewsNation that certain forms of electromagnetic energy can interact with biological tissue and potentially create neurological and physiological damage. He emphasized that early medical evaluation can be critical because an initial injury may trigger secondary physiological effects that worsen over time.

Those medical observations do not establish that every person diagnosed with an anomalous health incident was attacked with a weapon. Havana Syndrome has encompassed a large number of cases with differing circumstances and symptoms, and researchers have continued debating whether all of them share a common cause.

Russia Connection Is Significant but Not Yet Conclusive

The Russian connection is among the most consequential aspects of the investigation, but it is also where careful distinctions are essential. The recovered device contains Russian origin components. 60 Minutes reported that undercover agents obtained it through a Russian criminal network. Russian and Soviet scientists have a documented history of researching microwave and electromagnetic effects. Some intelligence officials have also reportedly reconsidered earlier assessments about whether a foreign adversary could be responsible for at least a subset of anomalous health incidents.

None of those facts amounts to a public U.S. government determination that Moscow ordered the Havana Syndrome incidents. The distinction between Russian technology, Russian components, Russian intermediaries and Russian government responsibility remains crucial. The first three now have considerably more evidence behind them than they did several years ago. The fourth remains an unresolved intelligence question based on the information currently available to the public.

Multiple Generations of Directed Energy Technology Reported

Herridge’s sources also describe directed energy technology as having evolved beyond a single weapon design. According to the NewsNation reporting, investigators have examined information involving systems ranging from larger fixed installations to portable equipment that can potentially be carried by an individual. Some reported versions require a relatively direct path toward a target, while newer iterations are alleged to operate under less restrictive conditions. Those details remain difficult to independently verify because much of the government’s research and technical analysis remains classified.

The backpack sized device already acknowledged through multiple news investigations nevertheless demonstrates that directed energy technology capable of generating pulsed radio frequency emissions can be miniaturized to a degree that would have sounded far more speculative when the first Havana cases emerged in 2016.

Whistleblowers Allege Government Withheld the Full Story

The controversy has also increasingly shifted toward how the U.S. government handled the investigation. Current and former government personnel have accused intelligence agencies of prematurely dismissing victims, withholding evidence and discouraging serious examination of a foreign directed energy explanation. A CIA whistleblower featured in Herridge’s reporting alleges that senior officials failed to adequately disclose evidence surrounding the incidents and argues that the technology represents an unresolved national-security threat. Those allegations remain allegations, but they arrive amid broader questions about earlier intelligence assessments and whether contradictory evidence received sufficient consideration. Victims and journalists are also calling for additional government findings to be declassified so the public can evaluate how intelligence assessments evolved and what evidence investigators now possess.

The Havana Syndrome Debate Has Fundamentally Changed

For years, the central argument surrounding Havana Syndrome was whether a compact weapon capable of producing the reported symptoms was technologically plausible. The discovery and testing of a portable device emitting pulsed radio frequency energy changes that question considerably. The United States now possesses a foreign device with Russian origin components that generates a form of energy long discussed as one possible explanation for anomalous health incidents. U.S. investigators have tested the equipment, including through reported animal experiments, while separate research has demonstrated that exposure to pulsed-energy technology can produce unexpected neurological symptoms.

What remains unresolved is arguably even more important: whether the recovered device or related technology was actually used against American personnel, who manufactured and operated the systems involved, whether reported incidents inside the United States were deliberate attacks, and whether Russia or another foreign government directed them.

The evidence does not yet justify declaring those questions solved. But after nearly a decade in which victims were repeatedly confronted with doubts that such a weapon could even exist, investigators are no longer dealing exclusively with theories, medical records and intelligence assessments. They have a physical device in their possession and determining exactly where it came from, what it can do and whether related technology was used against Americans has become a major national security investigation.

Sources & Further Reading

CBS News — Device That May Be Tied to Havana Syndrome Obtained by U.S. Government
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/device-havana-syndrome-obtained-by-u-s-government/

CBS News / 60 Minutes — U.S. Military Tested Device That May Be Tied to Havana Syndrome
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-military-tested-device-that-may-be-tied-to-havana-syndrome-60-minutes-transcript/

CBS News — What to Know About Havana Syndrome and the Device Obtained by the U.S.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/havana-syndrome-device-what-to-know/

NewsNation — Catherine Herridge: U.S. Studying Directed-Energy Weapon Seized From Adversary
https://www.aol.com/articles/us-studying-directed-energy-weapon-034939000.html

NewsNation — Catherine Herridge and Dr. James Giordano on Directed-Energy Injuries
https://www.aol.com/articles/directed-energy-attacks-early-intervention-044116000.html

The Washington Post — Classified Pulsed-Energy Experiment and Havana Syndrome Investigation
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/02/14/havana-syndrome-cia-norway-experiment/