So here's a story that sounds like it's straight out of a spy novel, but it's very real: Lockheed Martin Corp. Lockheed Martin (LMT) has a thing called "Ghost Murmur" that can apparently hear your heartbeat from miles away. And it just helped pull off a rescue mission in Iran.

According to reports, the CIA used this never-before-deployed system on Sunday to help extract a downed U.S. airman from Iran's mountains after his F-15E was shot down. President Donald Trump later called the mission "unbelievable," per the New York Post's reporting on the tool's role.

So what is Ghost Murmur? It's a classified quantum-sensing platform developed inside Lockheed's famous Skunk Works unit, which is basically their black-ops lab for top-secret tech. The technology picks up the faint electromagnetic signature of a human heartbeat from a long range. Think of it as the world's most sensitive stethoscope, but one that works through rock, distance, and all the electronic noise of the modern world.

It reportedly combines ultra-sensitive quantum magnetometers with AI to isolate a single cardiac rhythm from the electromagnetic noise of the Earth, vehicles, infrastructure, and other people. Last weekend in Iran, that capability allowed operators to zero in on the wounded weapons systems officer—identified only by his callsign "Dude 44 Bravo"—after he was forced to stay hidden in rugged terrain to avoid capture.

Ghost Murmur had previously only seen use in controlled testing, including flights on Black Hawk helicopters, before being rushed into this first real-world deployment. Sources told the outlet that the system helped confirm the airman's position in a rocky crevice roughly two days after the jet was downed, clearing the way for a high-risk special operations rescue inside hostile airspace.

President Trump and CIA Director John Ratcliffe both pointed to the tool's importance, with officials summarizing its promise in one stark line: "If your heart is beating, we will find you." Which is, you know, a pretty good tagline for a search-and-rescue technology.

Investing in Defense Technology

For individual investors, Lockheed Martin is a premier—and arguably expensive (the stock is at $623.87 Friday morning)—way to play defense tech and classified programs like Ghost Murmur. But if you're looking for cutting-edge defense tech names with more approachable entry points, here are a few to consider:

L3Harris Technologies, Inc. L3Harris Technologies (LHX): provider of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs), sensors, avionics, space-based systems, missiles, and ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance) sensor payloads that ride on drones and satellites.

Leidos Holdings, Inc. Leidos Holdings (LDOS): focuses on defense IT, signals intelligence, and analytics that tie AI into real-time command-and-control for the Pentagon and intelligence community.

Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc. Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (KTOS): supplies rapidly deployable unmanned systems, tactical drones, and related command and control communications systems.