Driving the news: CNN reports that Hegseth approved a seven-month loan of the Active Denial System to DHS, allowing the agency to test the weapon and develop tactics for its potential use at the border.
- Authorization does not mean deployment. It remains unclear whether DHS will ultimately use this weapon.
What they say: A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told Axios: “CBP continually evaluates new technologies, particularly those that can save lives while simultaneously improving national security effectiveness. »
- Patrick Weaver, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, commented on the tests in an X post: “The border is now a military installation and combat laboratory for testing new systems, including directed energy weapons,” he wrote. “The border is locked!”
Here’s what you need to know about it.
What to Know About the Active Denial System Heat Ray
How it works: The weapon — which has a range of up to 1,000 yards — fires an invisible beam of electromagnetic energy that penetrates about 1/64 of an inch into the skin, rapidly heating its surface and triggering an intense burning sensation, according to the Department of Defense.
- Authorities liken the sensation to the blast of heat felt when opening a hot oven, saying it is intense enough to trigger an almost instantaneous flight reflex.
- The burning sensation stops when someone exits the beam, although tingling or residual sensitivity may persist for 10 to 15 minutes, according to the Pentagon.
Can heat ray hurt people?
According to the DOD, the device was specifically designed to be non-lethal.
- For it to actually kill someone, the DOD says exposure “would have to be sustained and prolonged several times for the duration required to achieve the repellant effect.”
Yes, but: The weapon has caused second-degree burns in at least two documented incidents. A 1999 lab accident left one person with a blister, while an airman suffered burns during a training exercise in 2007 after procedural errors led to overexposure. The airman made a full recovery.
- The Pentagon says controls, operational procedures, checklists, software upgrades and training reduce the risk of injury.
Has thermal ray ever been considered for edge use?
The idea of using directed energy weapons at the border are not new.
- The Air Force began researching the technology in the late 1980s, and the Pentagon developed the active denial system as a military demonstration project from 2002 to 2007.
In 2018, Former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen rejected a proposal to use technology against migrants, CNN reports.
- In July 2025, the Pentagon’s Joint Mid-Force Capabilities Office published a paper arguing for the use of energy weapons – such as “active denial technology” – to enhance border security.
What they say: Jared Keller, author of Laser Wars Defense Technology Newsletter, says the weapon has raised ethical and legal questions since its development because it is designed to inflict pain on people.
- “Whether that means this is an appropriate tool to deploy at the southern border or not depends on your interpretation of these effects,” Keller tells Axios. “Personally, I just wouldn’t do that.”
- Keller says the move is another sign of how the United States has transformed the border into a “battle laboratory” for testing new technologies. He cited high-energy lasers, microdrones and futuristic heads-up displays as examples.
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