Using secret technology, the CIA was able to locate a downed US soldier in Iran. He is now being treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Centre (LRMC), the largest US military hospital outside the USA.
One of the US soldiers who crashed in Iran and was later rescued is reportedly being treated in Germany. According to several US media outlets, he is said to have been taken to the military hospital in Landstuhl in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. US President Trump confirmed the soldier's rescue but admitted that he was "seriously wounded".
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The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center is the largest US military hospital outside the United States and serves as a kind of medical hub for the US armed forces between operational theatres and home.
Severely wounded soldiers are usually stabilised first, often in mobile facilities or regional bases, and then flown to Germany on military aircraft. Proximity to Ramstein Air Base is also crucial: the largest US air force base outside the United States acts as a logistical hub for troops, equipment and, of course, the wounded.
"Ghost Murmur": CIA locates pilot via heart signal
In the US-Israeli war against Iran, Tehran shot down an F-15E fighter jet with a two-man crew last week. Both servicemen, the pilot and a weapons systems officer, survived. After the shoot-down, the weapons systems officer was initially listed as missing but was later recovered by US forces in a complex rescue operation.
According to the New York Post, the CIA was able to locate him using a previously secret technology. The system, called "Ghost Murmur", was reportedly used for the first time last weekend. According to the report, the technology uses so-called quantum magnetometry to detect the electromagnetic signatures of the human body, specifically the heart signal.
Artificial intelligence filters these signals out of the background noise. "It is like hearing a voice in a stadium, except the stadium is a thousand square miles of desert," a source told the New York Post. "Under the right conditions, if your heart is beating, we will find you."
However, the technology is not universally applicable, the report continues. It works best in remote areas with little electromagnetic interference, such as desert regions. The system is said to have been developed by "Skunk Works", the secret research division of US defence contractor Lockheed Martin.