US diplomats in Havana report piercing sounds, headaches and dizziness, and hundreds of similar cases follow worldwide. Whether any foreign weapon was involved remains disputed.
Contested history
Consensus: US intelligence assessed in 2023, and again in 2025, that a foreign adversary very likely did not cause the incidents, while accepting that personnel had real symptoms.
A foreign directed-energy weaponDebated
A 2020 National Academies panel found pulsed radio-frequency energy plausible, and in 2025 two of seven intelligence components shifted toward possible foreign capability, with low confidence.
No brain injury and varied ordinary causesDebated
NIH imaging studies in 2024 found no significant evidence of brain injury in affected staff.
The recorded Havana sound was insectsEstablished
Analysis of a released recording found it matched the call of the Indies short-tailed cricket.