Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) facility During the Cold War Cuba
had an agreement with Russia which allows Moscow to maintain a
signals intelligence facility near Havana at Torrens [23°00'01"N
82°28'56"W], also known as Lourdes, which was the largest
Russian SIGINT site abroad. The strategic location of Lourdes
makes it ideal for gathering intelligence on the United States.
It has been reported that the Lourdes facility is the largest
such complex operated by the Russian Federation and its
intelligence service outside the region of the former Soviet
Union. The Lourdes facility is reported to cover a 28 square-
mile area with 1,000-1,500 Russian engineers, technicians, and
military personnel working at the base diuring the late Cold
War. Experts familiar with the Lourdes facility confirmed that
the base has multiple groups of tracking dishes and its own
satellite system, with some groups used to intercept telephone
calls, faxes, and computer communications, in general, and with
other groups used to cover targete