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1h ago

Pentagon Lets DHS Test Active Denial System at Southern Border

The seven-month loan shifts operational control to DHS, prompting questions about legality, safety, cross-border sovereignty.

An Active Denial System from the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate is staged before conducting a demonstration in Wellton, Arizona, in April 2017.
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - OCTOBER 10: The Pentagon is seen from a flight taking off from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on October 10, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Combat Logistics Battalion 7 performed a non-lethal weapons training exercise March 21 in conjunction with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Non-Lethal Weapons Program at the Combat Center’s Range 800. The Active Denial System 2, an advanced non-lethal direct-fire support system that projects a man-sized beam of heat-emitting millimeter waves. It can effectively engage targets up to 1,000 meters. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Alejandro)
An Active Denial System from the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate is staged before conducting a counter personnel demo during Weapons and Tactics Instructor course (WTI) 2-17 at Site 50, Wellton, Ariz., April 4, 2017. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Lance Cpl. Andrew M. Huff)

Overview

  • The Pentagon authorized a temporary seven-month loan of one Active Denial System to DHS in September so the agency can test the device and develop tactics for possible border use.
  • The Active Denial System is a military-directed-energy device that projects millimeter-wave energy up to about half a mile and causes an intense burning or tingling sensation meant to make people move away.
  • The memo says Department of War personnel will not operate the system and makes DHS solely responsible for system employment, tactics, techniques and procedures, with DHS able to request an extension after the loan ends.
  • Current and former officials raised concerns about legal limits on force, the risk of direct or indirect harm such as driving people into dangerous water or terrain, and potential effects on people in Mexico who could be exposed to the beam.
  • The system was briefly deployed to Afghanistan nearly two decades ago but never used in combat and past proposals for domestic or crowd-control use were rejected, while CBP says it routinely evaluates new technologies and testing locations have not been publicly disclosed.