Did a Quantum Sensor Help Rescuers Find a Downed American Pilot?

Insider Brief

• Reports suggest a U.S. rescue operation may have used a quantum sensor to detect a missing airman’s heartbeat at distance, though some experts suggest the claim overstates current technological capabilities.
• Recent research shows diamond-based quantum sensors can detect heart signals without contact, but only under controlled conditions with close proximity and significant noise filtering.
• Commercial development of quantum magnetometry is progressing toward portable systems, but real-world use remains constrained by environmental noise and signal sensitivity limits.
• Image: “Lakenheath F-15 Strike CAD West Mach Loop” by wallycacsabre is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A recent rescue operation of a downed U.S. airman in Iran may have relied on a quantum sensor, some sources are telling the media.

According to the New York Post, the CIA used something called “Ghost Murmur” — a tool to help detect a second American airman who was shot down in southern Iran last week. Ghost refers to the missing service personnel — who has “disappeared” — and the murmur refers to the ability of this device to pick up the missing person’s heart beat.

To pick up that incredibly feint signal, sources told the Post that the device relies on long-range quantum magnetometry that can detect an electromagnetic fingerprint of a human heartbeat. The system then uses artificial intelligence to separate that signal from all the surrounding background noise of the environment.

Based on hints in the media, the device seems to be based on quantum sensing devices that are now being investigated for medical uses in hospitals and healthcare facilities.

“Normally this signal is so weak that it can only be measured in a hospital setting with sensors pressed nearly against the chest,” a source told the New York Post. “But advances in a field known as quantum magnetometry — specifically sensors built around microscopic defects in synthetic diamonds — have apparently made it possible to detect these signals at dramatically greater distances.”

However, the real advance seems to be the use of a quantum sensor outside of medical or laboratory settings, which would be far less noisy and isolated. Using it in an outside environment would be a step-change in quantum sensing development.

One reason for its use in Iran may allude to that sensitivity. The area the flyer was downed in is reportedly sparsely populated and relatively flat, all of which would make the operation what would be extremely sensitive system more feasible.

The area was “about as clean an environment as you could ask for,” the source told the Post, with “almost no competing human signatures, and at night the thermal contrast between a living body and the desert floor.”

Speculations or Actual Advance?

So how possible — or probable — is it that quantum advances are being used in this operation?

If it is true, the underlying technology would reflect real advances in quantum magnetometry, particularly using diamond-based sensors capable of detecting extremely weak biological signals.

To give some idea of the complexity and sensitivity, these devices typically rely on so-called nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers, which are microscopic defects in synthetic diamond where a nitrogen atom sits next to a missing carbon atom. When illuminated with laser light and exposed to microwave pulses, these defects behave like tiny quantum probes whose electron spin states shift in response to minute magnetic fields. By reading out those shifts optically, researchers can translate otherwise invisible magnetic fluctuations — such as those produced by electrical activity in the human heart — into measurable signals.

In controlled settings, this approach has already shown promise as a more flexible alternative to traditional superconducting sensors, which require bulky cryogenic cooling. Diamond-based systems, by contrast, can operate at room temperature and, in principle, be miniaturized or deployed in portable formats. That has fueled interest in applications ranging from brain imaging to navigation and materials analysis. It would almost certainly have attracted interest from national defense and military operators.

But the sensitivity that makes these sensors powerful also makes them fragile.

The magnetic signature of a heartbeat is extraordinarily faint and decays rapidly with distance, while the surrounding environment — especially outdoors — is saturated with competing signals from the Earth’s magnetic field, electronic devices, and natural electromagnetic fluctuations. Extracting a clean biological signal under those conditions would require not only extreme sensor sensitivity but also sophisticated noise suppression, shielding, and signal-processing techniques.

As a result, using such systems in open, noisy environments — and at meaningful distances — would represent a significant leap beyond current demonstrated capabilities, suggesting the reports may overstate the maturity or range of the technology.

What Recent Recent Research Shows

Recent research also shows that advances are being made in quantum sensing, particular in diamond magnetometers alluded to in media reports. However, no current studies could be found that reached a level in sophistication that is described in the media accounts.

Researchers reports in a 2026 preprint titled Human Cardiac Measurements with Diamond Magnetometers that quantum sensors built from synthetic diamonds can detect the faint magnetic signal produced by a human heartbeat without touching the body. But the signal is so weak that researchers had to combine many repeated heartbeats and use advanced filtering to clearly identify it. Tests outside tightly controlled lab conditions were possible, but still relied heavily on noise reduction techniques. This study suggests that detecting a heartbeat without contact is possible, but only with careful signal processing and controlled conditions.

In Non-invasive magnetocardiography of a living rat based on a diamond quantum sensor, researchers used a similar approach to measure the heartbeat of a living rat. The system worked at room temperature and avoided bulky cooling equipment, a step toward more practical devices. Still, the sensor had to be placed very close to the body, and the setup remained tightly controlled to avoid interference. In this case, the technology works on real biological systems, but only at close range and under controlled conditions.

In a 2025 study, Performance Evaluation of a Diamond Quantum Magnetometer for Biomagnetic Sensing, researchers examined how well these sensors could detect signals like those from the heart or brain. The results show that quantum sensors are becoming more sensitive and easier to operate, especially since they can work at room temperature. But the study also highlights a key hurdle: background noise from the environment still makes reliable detection difficult outside controlled settings. The takeaway here is that hardware is improving, but real-world conditions remain a major obstacle.

These studies do not conclude that it would be impossible to detect a heartbeat in a desert environment, but they do suggest that the type of device described in media accounts would be vastly superior to current disclosed art.

The Commercial Field

While the company declined to comment on this, the New York Post’s source said that Ghost Murmur was developed by Skunk Works, Lockheed Martin’s advanced development division.

However, a small but growing group of startups and companies in the quantum industry is working to turn quantum magnetometry from a laboratory technique into a real-world sensing technology. Most are focused on near-term applications where detecting extremely weak magnetic signals at close range creates clear value, such as materials analysis, navigation, and biomedical sensing. Here, they offer a clearer picture of what the technology can do today and how far it would have to go before it could support more ambitious use cases, like outdoor human detection.

Canada-based SBQuantum is among the companies pushing quantum magnetometry into field applications. Its diamond-based sensors are designed to detect subtle changes in magnetic fields for uses such as underground mapping, navigation without GPS, and defense-related sensing. The company’s work reflects an effort to move beyond controlled environments, though its applications rely on detecting larger, more stable signals than those produced by the human body.

Switzerland-based Qnami has taken a more established commercial route, selling high-precision quantum sensing instruments built on diamond technology. Its systems are used to image magnetic fields at very small scales in research and industrial settings, particularly in nanotechnology and materials science, where the environment can be tightly controlled.

A similar approach is taken by QZabre, which develops diamond-based magnetometers for nanoscale measurements. The company focuses on high-resolution sensing for advanced manufacturing and research, underscoring where the technology is currently most reliable: close-range, high-precision applications.

In the biomedical space, Quantum Diamond Technologies is developing diamond-based sensors to detect magnetic signals from biological systems. The work aligns with research into non-invasive diagnostics, but like academic studies, it remains rooted in controlled environments where noise can be managed.

Newer entrants are aiming to make the technology more portable. DeteQt is developing diamond-on-silicon magnetometers for navigation, mineral detection, and compact sensing systems. The goal is to scale production and reduce system size, though the technology is still early in its commercial deployment.

Other companies are applying quantum magnetometry in adjacent ways. EuQlid uses diamond-based sensors to map electrical currents inside semiconductor devices, while Quantum Brilliance leverages similar materials for both sensing and computing applications, which shows the overlap between quantum hardware platforms.

This is obviously a non-exhaustive list of companies and startups — and there is certainly a possibility for companies still in stealth — that could be involved in a project like this. Another possibility: this type of technology could be in development at university research labs, or government laboratories.