AI-enabled sensing technologies are being explored for personnel recovery in contested environments, including systems designed to detect human biosignals such as heartbeats at a distance.
In one reported case, US intelligence authorities used a system known as “Ghost Murmur,” developed by Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, to help locate a downed airman in Iran by detecting and isolating his heartbeat signal, according to sources cited by the New York Post.
The incident follows the reported downing of an F-15E Strike Eagle over southern Iran, where two crew members ejected. While one was recovered shortly after, the second airman remained missing for nearly 48 hours after taking cover in a mountainous area to evade Iranian forces.
Ghost Murmur is described as a system that uses quantum magnetometry to detect electromagnetic signals generated by the human body, combined with artificial intelligence to filter those signals from environmental noise.
A source compared its sensitivity to isolating a single voice across a vast area, adding that under suitable conditions, a living individual can be located through subtle biological emissions.
The system’s name reflects its intended function. “The name is deliberate. ‘Murmur’ is a clinical term for a heart rhythm. ‘Ghost’ refers to finding someone who, for all practical purposes, has disappeared,” the source said.
