Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly authorized testing of a military heat ray device along the U.S.-Mexico border. This overrides years of caution from critics who question the weapon’s safety record. The approval hands Homeland Security a seven-month loan of the Active Denial System, a device designed to repel crowds by inflicting pain without permanent harm.
Pete Hegseth reportedly approves ‘heat ray’ weapon despite warnings
The Pentagon cleared the Department of Homeland Security to test and potentially deploy the ADS, according to a memo CNN obtained. The system fires a focused beam of energy waves that travels just over half a mile and triggers what officials call an “intolerable” burning sensation beneath the skin. Hegseth attached a condition to the loan: no Department of Defense personnel will operate the technology. The clause appears intended to insulate the Pentagon from fallout if the weapon misfires or draws legal challenges.
Marine Corps materials describe the ADS as “non-lethal,” saying it penetrates less than a millimeter of skin and drives targets to flee without injury. Hegseth’s memo repeats that language. Neither document specifies where or how DHS would use the device. For those unaware, the heat ray has circulated in military planning for years as a crowd-control option. U.S. forces sent it to Afghanistan in 2010, though troops never fired it in the field.
Physicians for Human Rights flagged dangers in a 2020 brief, warning that thinly protected areas such as the eyes and face could suffer injury during prolonged exposure. Moreover, the transfer to DHS follows an ACLU study counting more than 1,200 violent arrests by July and more than 20 deaths in the agency’s custody this year.
Now, Hegseth’s approval came amid wider scrutiny of his Pentagon tenure. Rep. Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against him last month, and Democrats say they will push the effort after the midterms. Hegseth also got public rebukes over a proposed livestreamed execution, which the president scrapped.
