The US Defense Department has spent more than a year quietly testing a device some investigators believe could be linked to Havana Syndrome, reopening one of the most bitter and unresolved debates inside the federal government.
The device was purchased in an undercover operation by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, using Defense Department funding, CNN reported Tuesday. Four people briefed on the matter said officials paid “eight figures” for the equipment in the final months of the Biden administration.
According to two of the sources, the device emits pulsed radio waves and is portable enough to fit inside a backpack. One source said it contains Russian-made components, though it is not entirely Russian in origin.
CNN now reports the device linked to Havana Syndrome was purchased by Homeland Security in the waning days of the Biden administration. And DoD has spent a year testing it. It has Russian components and fits in a backpack. https://t.co/rSmKdAHid5 pic.twitter.com/rmT1Zj77To
— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) January 13, 2026
The device is still being studied, and there is no official conclusion tying it to Havana Syndrome, which is formally known as anomalous health incidents. Skepticism remains inside parts of the government, and officials stress the testing is ongoing.
Havana Syndrome first surfaced in late 2016, when US diplomats stationed in Havana reported sudden symptoms that resembled head trauma. Those included vertigo, intense headaches, tinnitus, memory problems, and difficulty concentrating. In the years that followed, similar cases were reported among US personnel in multiple countries.
For nearly a decade, intelligence agencies and the Pentagon have wrestled with whether those incidents were the result of a directed energy attack carried out by a foreign actor. Public assessments have repeatedly said there is not enough evidence to support that conclusion.
Maybe that’s what the Havana Syndrome was? Weirdly it was mostly reported by US diplomats overseas, especially in Cuba pic.twitter.com/tTAcYnb0d3
— Captain Obed Marsh (@PhakaPranit) January 4, 2026
In 2022, an intelligence panel said some cases could “plausibly” have been caused by pulsed electromagnetic energy from an external source. A year later, the intelligence community said it was very unlikely that a foreign adversary was responsible, though analysts said they could not fully rule it out in a small number of cases.
That stance has angered many of those who say they were injured, some of whom were forced into early retirement. Several current and former CIA officers have said the agency downplayed evidence and failed to take victims seriously.
The existence of a real-world device capable of producing the kind of energy long theorized in Havana Syndrome cases has intensified those frustrations.
New Havana Syndrome video from the @latimes repeats an almost identical story from a 2022 CNN special, involving spies zapping government officials from tiny service rooms in their hotels. pic.twitter.com/vS6pec7tRl
— Robert Skvarla (@RobertSkvarla) December 14, 2025
“If the US government has indeed uncovered such devices, then the CIA owes all the victims a f***ing major and public apology for how we have been treated as pariahs,” former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos said in a statement. Polymeropoulos has said he became violently ill during a work trip to Moscow in 2017 and was later diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury caused by what doctors described as an external exposure event.
Defense officials viewed the device seriously enough to brief the House and Senate Intelligence Committees late last year, including updates on testing and internal concerns. One fear raised by officials is that if the technology proves viable, it may have spread beyond a single country.
For now, the device has not solved Havana Syndrome. But its quiet acquisition has reopened a question many inside government thought had already been answered. And for those affected, one they never believed was settled at all.
