The Pentagon has spent more than a year testing a device acquired through an undercover operation that some investigators believe could be linked to Havana Syndrome, the unresolved cluster of neurological symptoms reported by U.S. diplomats, intelligence officers, and military personnel since 2016. 

According to four sources briefed on the matter, the device was purchased for “eight figures” using Defense Department funding in the final months of the Biden administration, and is now at the center of renewed internal debate about causation, attribution, and accountability. 

The purchase was executed not by the Pentagon directly but by Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the Department of Homeland Security with broad authority to investigate cross-border technology and proliferation cases.

Officials familiar with the matter said the device has been under technical examination for more than 12 months, with no definitive conclusion yet reached. 

While some investigators view it as potentially relevant to roughly dozens of anomalous health incidents, others remain skeptical, underscoring long-standing divisions inside the U.S. government.

CNN reported that the Pentagon, DHS, and HSI were asked for comment, while the CIA declined.

According to one source, the device produces pulsed radio waves, a technical characteristic long theorized by some scientists and officials as a possible mechanism behind Havana Syndrome, formally known within government as anomalous health incidents. 

The device is not entirely Russian in origin but contains Russian components, the source said, a detail that has heightened sensitivity given years of accusations by some victims that Moscow was responsible.

A central technical challenge remains unresolved: how a system powerful enough to cause reported symptoms could be made portable. 

One official briefed on the device said it could fit inside a backpack, a detail that has sharpened concern among defense officials about potential proliferation.

As one source put it, if the technology proves viable, “more than one country could now have access to a device” capable of causing “career-ending injuries.”

Havana Syndrome first emerged in late 2016 after U.S. diplomats in Havana reported vertigo, extreme headaches, and cognitive symptoms consistent with head trauma. 

Over the next decade, cases appeared across multiple continents, involving intelligence officers, military personnel, and their families. In 2022, an intelligence panel concluded that some incidents could “plausibly” have been caused by “pulsed electromagnetic energy emitted by an external source.”

Yet by 2023, the intelligence community publicly assessed that it could not link the cases to a foreign adversary, calling a targeted campaign “very unlikely.” 

As recently as January 2025, that judgment held, even as an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stressed analysts could not “rule out” foreign involvement in a small number of cases.

Defense officials nevertheless considered the new device serious enough to brief both the House and Senate Intelligence Committees late last year.

For victims, the acquisition has been seen as potential vindication. 

Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA officer who says he was injured in Moscow in 2017, told CNN: 

“If the [US government] has indeed uncovered such devices, then the CIA owes all the victims a f**king major and public apology for how we have been treated as pariahs.” 

His statement reflects years of tension between affected personnel and agencies accused of downplaying or mishandling investigations.

Officials acknowledged continuing gaps in medical understanding, including the absence of a clear definition of anomalous health incidents and delays between symptom onset and testing. 

Those limitations, combined with the classified nature of the device and its acquisition, have kept the issue unresolved nearly 10 years after the first reported cases.