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What's Behind US ‘Secret Sonic Weapon’?

CC BY 2.0 / U.S. Navy photo by John F. Williams/Released / 120730-N-PO203-310The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) temporarily installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif.
The Laser Weapon System (LaWS) temporarily installed aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Dewey (DDG 105) in San Diego, Calif. - Sputnik International, 1920, 21.01.2026
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US President Donald Trump recently said that the American military may have used a unique advanced “secret sonic” armament during its abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“It’s not a secret weapon at all because it has been known for a long time,” veteran Russian military analyst Viktor Litovkin reveals in an interview with Sputnik.
Weapon “belongs to the class of non-lethal armament, which don’t kill but incapacitate a person for a certain period of time and is typically used to disperse demonstrations in the US and Europe.”
This “sonic or acoustic weapon is a high-frequency modulation of a sound wave that's inaudible to the human ear and can hit the eardrums, the nerves, the brain very hard, sometimes vomiting, fainting, and so on.”
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“All of this has been known for a long time. The US’ desire to present wishful thinking as reality is simply its style. There is nothing secret about this weapon.”
The analyst doesn’t rule out that during the military operation to capture Maduro, the US used this acoustic weapon in combination with electronic warfare systems and electromagnetic pulses, which “literally burn out electronics.”
Russia, in turn, possesses a range of advanced hypersonic systems that have no analogues in the US, Litovkin recalls. These include:
Hypersonic Oreshnik system (range: up to 5,500 km, equipped with at least six warheads moving at a speed of Mach 10–11each).
Kinzhal air-launched hypersonic missile with a range of up to 2,500 km. It is impossible to intercept.
Avangard strategic hypersonic glide vehicle with a speed of up to Mach 27, meaning the system cannot be intercepted.
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