The CIA located a downed U.S. airman in southern Iran by detecting the electromagnetic signature of his heartbeat using a classified system called Ghost Murmur, two sources briefed on the program told the New York Post. It was the system’s first operational use.
The airman, publicly identified only as “Dude 44 Bravo,” ejected from an F-15E Strike Eagle and spent two days hiding in a mountain crevice while Iranian forces searched the area. He activated a Combat Survivor Evader Locator (CSEL) beacon, but his precise location remained uncertain to rescue teams until Ghost Murmur provided confirmation.
“It’s like hearing a voice in a stadium, except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert,” one source said. “In the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you.”
Ghost Murmur pairs long-range quantum magnetometry with artificial intelligence to isolate a heartbeat’s electromagnetic signal from background noise.
Developed by Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works advanced development division, the system has been tested on MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and may be adapted for F-35 fighter jets.
The system’s underlying physics connect to a January 2026 paper published on arXiv demonstrating non-contact cardiac detection using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, quantum-scale defects within synthetic diamonds.
Lockheed Martin also holds an active contract under DARPA’s Robust Quantum Sensors (RoQS) program, a $24.4 million effort to advance quantum sensing for defense platforms.
At an April 6 White House briefing, CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the agency “achieved our primary objective by finding and providing confirmation that one of America’s best and bravest was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice, still invisible to the enemy, but not to the CIA.”
President Donald Trump said the CIA spotted the airman from “40 miles away,” though it was not clear whether that figure referred to the tool’s initial detection range or a subsequent observation.
🚨🇺🇸 THE CIA JUST REVEALED TECH THAT CAN DETECT YOUR HEARTBEAT FROM 40 MILES AWAY…
“Ghost Murmur” is how they found the missing F-15E airman hiding in a mountain crevice in Iran.
First operational use ever.
The technology uses quantum magnetometry to detect the… https://t.co/agdEYcuD4T pic.twitter.com/9yXcnzus1N
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 8, 2026
