New activity at possible Chinese intelligence facilities in Cuba

For decades, Cuba’s proximity to the United States has made the island strategically valuable for foreign intelligence collection. Recent warnings from senior U.S. officials about expanding Chinese and Russian intelligence activities have once again drawn attention to Cuba’s role in supporting those efforts just 90 miles from U.S. shores.

In 2024, CSIS identified four Cuban sites featuring equipment that could support signals intelligence (SIGINT) collection, including several with possible links to China. Follow-on analysis of two of these sites, conducted in 2025, found major changes underway at one location, while work at the other had largely stalled. Now, new commercial satellite imagery reveals that activity at both sites has continued, though the pace and scale of development differ considerably.

At an expansive SIGINT site in Bejucal, near Havana, recent satellite imagery shows construction work completed on a new large circularly disposed antenna array (CDAA).

Read more at Center for Strategic and International Studies