Havana Syndrome

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Recently, the number of reported cases of mysterious illness that is linked to Havana Syndrome has started growing .

Havana Syndrome

• In late 2016, US diplomats and other employees stationed in Havana reported feeling ill after hearing strange sounds and experiencing odd physical sensations in their hotel rooms or homes.
• The symptoms included nausea, severe headaches, fatigue, dizziness, sleep problems, and hearing loss, which have since come to be known as “Havana Syndrome”.
• Cuba had denied any knowledge of the illnesses even though the US had accused it of carrying out “sonic attacks”, leading to an increase in tensions.

National Academies of Sciences (NAS) report  on the ‘Havana syndrome’

• In 2020 The NAS report, titled “An assessment of illness in US government employees and their families at overseas embassies”, by a committee of 19 experts in medicine and other fields examined four possibilities to explain the symptoms — infection, chemicals, psychological factors and microwave energy. 

• The  report  has found “directed” microwave radiation to be its “plausible” cause.

• Problems Highlighted by report 
  • The more chronic problems suffered by Havana personnel included mainly “vestibular processing and cognitive problems as well as insomnia and headache”

• The report also warns about the possibility of future episodes and recommends that the State Department establish a response mechanism for similar incidents.

• National Academies of Sciences (NAS) is a non-profit, Government Organisation in the United States of America. 

What are ‘Microwave Weapons’?

• Microwave weapons” are supposed to be a type of direct energy weapons, which aim for highly focused energy in the form of sonic, laser, or microwaves, at a target. 
• These weapons are based on the principle that microwave radiation of a certain kind can cause a buzzing sensation in the head, due to a phenomenon known as the thermoelastic effect. 
  • Such a weaponized microwave beam may cause a very slight expansion of the brain and produce a sound-like pressure, which strictly speaking is not sound but can be traumatic.  

Image Courtesy: USdefence

Countries with Microwave Weapons

• According to a report in the ‘The Daily Mail’, China had first put on display its “microwave weapon”, called Poly WB-1, at an air show in 2014.
• The United States has also developed a prototype microwave-style weapon, which it calls the “Active Denial System”

Instances of usage in the past

• The US deployed such a weapon in Afghanistan but withdrew it without ever using it against human targets.
• In the latter half of 2017, reports surfaced saying employees at the US embassy in Havana, Cuba, may have been targeted with a covert sonic weapon.
• Subsequently, in 2018, staff at the US consulate in Guangzhou, China complained of a possible similar attack in 2017.

Concerns

• Concerns have been raised on whether they can damage the eyes, or have a carcinogenic impact in the long term.

• A number of countries are thought to have developed these weapons to target both humans and electronic systems.
• It can have both acute and long-term effects — without leaving signs of physical damage.

India’s Plans for Directed Energy Weapons

• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)’s ambitious Directed Energy Weapon (DEWs) project is taking a big leap forward by making India a great military power through harnessing the power of lasers and microwaves.
  • DEWs use high-energy lasers and microwaves and this technology is considered a critical emerging military know-how on which all major powers are currently working.
• DRDO will have short, medium and long-term goals, with the eventual aim being to develop different DEW variants of up to 100-kilowatt power, in collaboration with the domestic industry.

Source: IE