CNN reports:

The Pentagon has given the Department of Homeland Security permission to test a military-grade heat ray and develop tactics to potentially use it in operations at the southern US border, according to a memo signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last month and obtained by CNN.

The heat ray, officially known as the Active Denial System, is a nonlethal weapon that shoots an invisible beam of electromagnetic waves that can reach a little more than half a mile away, according to the US military.

The energy beam causes a burning sensation when it comes into contact with the human skin — which Pentagon officials have previously compared to feeling a blast of heat when opening a hot oven. Military officials have said the resulting “tingling effect” lasts between 10 and 15 minutes but also generates “an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect.”

Deploying the heat ray at the US border would be an unprecedented step, even for the Trump administration, which has made border security and clamping down on immigration a top priority. The DHS request did not specify where or how the weapon would be tested and how it might eventually be used, but over the years, there have been internal discussions about potentially using it for crowd dispersal along the US-Mexico border, according to current and former Customs and Border Protection officials.

US officials had also considered deploying the system during moments of domestic unrest, including at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term when protests erupted over the murder of George Floyd, according to a former US official familiar with those discussions. [Continue reading…]