Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth approved a seven-month loan authorizing the Department of Homeland Security to test the Active Denial System, a nonlethal heat ray weapon, for potential border operations. The system fires electromagnetic beams up to half a mile to create an intense burning sensation on human skin. While officials frame the border as a battle lab for directed-energy testing, former officials raise legal and safety concerns regarding potential drownings near river crossings.
Pentagon memo approving Active Denial System loan
- ▪Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a memo approving a seven-month temporary loan of the Active Denial System to the Department of Homeland Security starting in September 2026 for border testing
- ▪At the conclusion of the seven-month loan period for the Active Denial System, the Department of Homeland Security may submit a request to the Pentagon for further use of the Active Denial System in border operations
Border military technology testing
- ▪Pete Hegseth's deputy chief of staff Patrick Weaver stated on X that the U.S.-Mexico border is a military installation and a battle lab for testing directed energy weapons
- ▪Defense technology author Jared Keller stated that the United States has used the U.S.-Mexico border to test technologies including high-energy lasers, microdrones, and futuristic heads-up displays
Concerns over legal and safety risks of border deployment
- ▪Defense technology author Jared Keller stated that deploying the Active Denial System at the U.S. border raises ethical and legal questions because the weapon is specifically designed to inflict pain
- ▪Customs and Border Protection officials raised concerns regarding the legality, use of force, and potential drownings or injuries if the Pentagon's Active Denial System were deployed near the U.S.-Mexico border river
Technical operation and physical effects of the system
- ▪The Active Denial System fires an invisible beam of electromagnetic energy reaching up to half a mile to penetrate skin and produce an intense burning heat sensation
- ▪The Department of Defense states the Active Denial System is designed to be nonlethal, though past incidents in 1999 and 2007 resulted in second-degree burns to individuals during testing and training
- ▪The Pentagon states that the energy beam of the Active Denial System penetrates approximately 1/64 of an inch into skin, causing an instinctive reflex to flee and a residual tingling effect lasting 10 to 15 minutes
Prior efforts to evaluate or deploy the system at the border
- ▪Customs and Border Protection officials in the El Centro sector previously evaluated the Pentagon's Active Denial System to determine if the technology could discourage influxes of illegal river crossings
- ▪In 2018, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen rejected a proposal to use the Active Denial System technology against migrants along the U.S. border
- ▪In July 2025, the Pentagon's Joint Intermediate Force Capabilities Office published an article advocating for the use of energy weapons like active denial technology for border security enforcement
History of military development and past non-border uses
- ▪The United States military developed the Active Denial System as a demonstration project from 2002 to 2007 following initial Air Force research on directed-energy technology in the late 1980s
- ▪United States officials previously considered deploying the Active Denial System during domestic unrest at the end of President Donald Trump's first term following the murder of George Floyd
- ▪United States officials considered using the Active Denial System for crowd control at overseas facilities holding terrorist detainees but ultimately declined to deploy the technology
- ▪The United States military deployed the Active Denial System to Afghanistan in 2010 but declined to use the weapon during active combat operations
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