When you think of warfare, you probably picture missiles, tanks, and boots on the ground. Yet, the phrase 10 times sound reminds us that audio itself has been turned into a potent tool of conflict. From rock‑blasting dictators to ultrasonic crowd‑control devices, the history of sonic weaponry is as eclectic as it is unsettling. Let’s crank the volume and dive into ten real‑world cases where sound was weaponized.
10 Times Sound: Sonic Strategies Across the Ages
10 The Overthrow Of Manuel Noriega
General Manuel Noriega loomed large over Panama during the 1980s, earning a reputation as a ruthless strongman comparable to Augusto Pinochet. His alleged misdeeds ranged from intimidating political opponents and orchestrating drug smuggling into Miami to the torture and murder of physician Hugo Spadafora.
Although Noriega initially enjoyed a cooperative relationship with the United States—helping secure the release of two American freighters under Nixon—ties frayed over time. By 1989, accusations of drug trafficking and a fraudulent presidential election prompted a U.S. invasion of Panama. Seeking sanctuary, Noriega fled to the Vatican embassy in Panama City.
U.S. forces quickly encircled the embassy, and on Christmas Day 1989 they launched a psychological assault: a relentless playlist of rock and heavy‑metal anthems blared from loudspeakers aimed at the building. The selections were chosen for their humiliating edge, featuring The Clash’s “I Fought The Law” and Van Halen’s “Panama.” After three days of nonstop ear‑splitting exposure, the music stopped, and on January 3, 1990 Noriega surrendered.
The United States has repeated this auditory intimidation on several occasions. Texas law‑enforcement agents reportedly blasted pop hits and Tibetan chants during the 1993 Waco siege, while Marines in Afghanistan in 2010 are said to have fired Metallica and Thin Lizzy into Marjah villages for hours on end.
9 The Israeli Scream
Israel consistently ranks among the world’s most technologically advanced militaries, a claim reinforced by a 2017 New York Post profile. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have pioneered a slew of cutting‑edge tools, from unmanned border patrols to the Arrow missile‑intercept system launched in 2000. Among these innovations sits a less‑lethal acoustic weapon dubbed Scream.
First deployed in 2011 amid stone‑throwing and tire‑burning protests at a checkpoint between Jerusalem and Ramallah, Scream fires focused sonic pulses at demonstrators. The resulting disorientation—nausea, dizziness, and a general sense of unease—proved an effective means of crowd control without resorting to lethal force.
8 The Squawk Box In Northern Ireland
During the early 1970s, the Troubles in Northern Ireland escalated into a wave of violence that saw bombings, shootings, and civilian casualties. In January 1973, a year after the Bloody Sunday massacre, riots erupted across Derry, prompting the British Army to search for a non‑lethal method to disperse rioters.
The result was the Squawk Box, a device that emitted two ultrasonic tones at slightly different frequencies. Individually, each tone hovered just below the audible range, but when they combined inside a person’s ear they produced an ear‑splitting, nauseating buzz. Recipients reported dizziness, giddiness, and in some cases, loss of consciousness.
Developed by a research team stationed at Lisburn barracks near Belfast, the Squawk Box was prized for its pinpoint accuracy, allowing operators to target individual trouble‑makers rather than blanket the crowd.
Although New Scientist covered the invention at the time, the British Army remained tight‑lipped about the device’s specifications, leaving its exact range and power shrouded in mystery.
7 Havana Syndrome
Since Fidel Castro’s revolution ousted Fulgencio Batista, the United States has pursued a variety of covert tactics to destabilize Cuba. While the Bay of Pigs operation famously flopped, the U.S. embargo has crippled the island’s economy, costing an estimated $130 billion. Earlier CIA plots even contemplated poisoning ice cream and drugging cigars.
In a more recent episode, U.S. diplomatic staff in Havana began reporting a mysterious high‑pitched whine that triggered nausea, dizziness, and persistent headaches between late 2016 and August 2017. Twenty‑four embassy employees experienced these symptoms, with many later developing long‑term issues such as cognitive impairment and disrupted sleep.
The U.S. government initially framed the incidents as a sophisticated acoustic attack, pointing to a recording of a buzzing drone‑like noise released to the Associated Press. Officials suggested a third‑party nation might be behind the assaults, hoping to widen the rift between Washington and Havana.
However, a University of Pennsylvania investigation cast doubt on the acoustic‑attack theory, proposing that the recorded sound could simply be the mating call of a Caribbean cricket rather than a weaponized device.
6 The Mosquito Alarm
The Mosquito Alarm is a contentious anti‑loitering system sold to British authorities over a decade ago. It emits a high‑frequency tone that only younger ears—typically those under 25—can hear, delivering a grating metallic whine that can clear teenagers from public spaces within minutes.
Critics, including the civil‑rights group Liberty, argue that the device infringes on the fundamental rights of young people, indiscriminately causing distress to anyone within earshot, from unsuspecting youths to infants and autistic children with heightened auditory sensitivities.
Despite widespread opposition, thousands of units have been purchased by police forces and local councils across the UK. While cities such as Edinburgh and Kent have moved to ban the Mosquito, many municipalities continue to employ it as a deterrent against loitering.
5 Deterring Pirates
Acoustic weapons have become a go‑to option for vessels seeking to fend off pirate attacks. In November 2005, the cruise liner Seabourn Spirit faced a hostile boarding by Somali pirates off the coast of Somalia. Security officer Michael Groves responded by firing a Long‑Range Acoustic Device (LRAD) alongside a high‑pressure water hose, buying enough time to protect the ship’s 300‑plus passengers. Both Groves and his colleague Som Bahadur Gurung, who was injured during the clash, later received honors from the Queen for their bravery.
Not all encounters ended so favorably. In 2008, the chemical tanker M/V Biscaglia was besieged by pirates in the same waters. When the crew activated their sonic cannon, the attackers merely laughed it off, rendering the device ineffective. The tanker’s security team, armed only with scaffolding poles and flare guns, ultimately abandoned ship and dove into the sea to escape the onslaught.
4 Nazi Propaganda Music
Germany’s storied musical heritage—home to Beethoven, Bach, and Wagner—was hijacked by the Third Reich to serve its ideological agenda. The Nazi regime labeled modern styles such as swing and jazz “degenerate,” associating them with Jewish and African‑American musicians and portraying them as cultural decay.
Music thus became a weapon in the Nazis’ propaganda arsenal, used to stir nationalist fervor and reinforce traditional German values. Songs glorifying Hitler and the regime, like the anti‑Soviet “Horst‑Wessel‑Lied,” were performed at rallies, while the Hitler Youth cultivated its own robust musical program to indoctrinate the next generation.
Propaganda through melody proved strikingly effective, keeping morale high and expanding support for the regime’s extremist policies. As Joseph Goebbels famously observed, “Music affects the heart and emotions more than the intellect. Where then could the heart of a nation beat stronger than in the huge masses, in which the heart of a nation has found its true home?”
3 Wildlife Preservation
Humans are not the only species subjected to acoustic manipulation. Across the globe, sound cannons emit harsh tones to deter wildlife from causing damage, sometimes mimicking predator calls to scare animals away.
Industries ranging from wind farms to oil platforms and vineyards employ LRAD units and similar systems to protect assets. For instance, the Guglielmo Marconi Airport in Bologna, Italy, has relied on LRADs for over a decade to reduce bird‑strike incidents. In northern Canada, communities have begun using acoustic devices as a humane method to keep polar bears at bay.
2 US Riot Police
In recent years, American law‑enforcement agencies have adopted sound cannons as a means to intimidate and disperse protestors. Following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, demonstrators flooded the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, demanding justice.
Police responded by deploying an LRAD—similar to the one used against Somali pirates—that first broadcast verbal warnings before unleashing a piercing tone capable of inducing headaches. The LRAD 500X‑RA can reach up to 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) and emit sound levels of 149 decibels, far beyond the 120‑decibel threshold where sound becomes painful and approaching the 130‑decibel level that can cause hearing loss.
This tactic is not new to U.S. police. The NYPD used LRADs during the Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011, and the device reappeared in 2016 during clashes over the Dakota Access Pipeline.
1 CIA Torture
In 2014, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a damning report on CIA interrogation practices, revealing the use of “sound disorientation techniques” at the secretive COBALT facility—a method echoed at Guantanamo Bay in 2008. Prisoners were shackled in dark cells and subjected to continuous loud music, deliberately preventing sleep and fostering psychological breakdown.
Specific tracks were chosen for their cultural dissonance. For instance, before interrogating suspected terrorist Ramzi bin al‑Shibh, interrogators blasted the Blues Brothers’ “Rawhide.” The CIA favored genres such as heavy metal and country, believing that the unfamiliar sounds would disorient Middle‑Eastern detainees and accelerate the breakdown process.