The Pentagon has authorized the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to test a military-grade 'heat ray' and develop tactics for its possible use at the southern U.S. border, according to a memorandum signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and obtained by CNN. Axios also reported Hegseth's approval of the testing on October 21.

Source: CNN via The National News Desk

The device, officially called the Active Denial System (ADS), projects an invisible beam of millimeter waves that can reach a little more than half a mile, according to the military. The beam causes an intense burning sensation on the skin — compared by Pentagon officials to opening a hot oven — which can last 10 to 15 minutes and creates an instinctive urge to move away. Hegseth approved a seven-month loan of the system to DHS, with a condition that no Department of Defense personnel will operate the technology.

The approval covers testing and evaluation only. The DHS request did not specify where or how the system would be tested or eventually used, and the system has never been deployed at the U.S. border. U.S. forces sent the technology to Afghanistan in 2010, but troops never used it in the field.

An idea officials rejected before

Current and former Customs and Border Protection officials told CNN they have discussed using the system to disperse crowds in areas with high numbers of crossings, and officials previously raised concerns that people could be incapacitated or pushed into a river and need rescue. In 2018, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen rejected a proposal to use the system against migrants, and officials also raised legal, use-of-force and sovereignty concerns, particularly if it were used on people who had not yet crossed into the U.S.

Physicians for Human Rights warned in a 2020 brief that thinly protected areas such as the eyes and face could suffer injury during prolonged exposure. Marine Corps materials describe the ADS as non-lethal, saying it penetrates less than a millimeter of skin. Whether DHS ultimately uses the technology in immigration enforcement will depend on the outcome of the evaluation and further operational decisions.