How About a Heat Ray?

Today I learned, via a Facebook post, that there is such a thing as the euphemistically titled Active Denial System. It's a heat ray developed for the U.S. military that sends an energy wave up to 700 yards to heat the water molecules in the surface skin cells of anyone and anything in its path. The intent, on paper, is to make anyone who feels it run away from the area where it is beamed.

700 yards. I like to think of those in terms a lot of Americans can understand. That's seven football fields. Sounds really focused to me.

Since it essentially feels as though you are being microwaved, that's likely to be the reaction — if a person has the physical ability to flee. Which is a big if. The ifs also include that people won't trip or get trampled, have more fragile skin that burns more easily, or experience some interaction with metal on their body. That last item hasn't been thoroughly test yet because, you know... human subject research with a dangerous weapon.

The post I saw on Facebook said that the Department of Homeland Security has been authorized to test ADS for the U.S. southern border. 

I didn't know if any of this was true, so I found the trusty Wikipedia article on the topic, which confirmed the basics of all that, with sources. It did not say that DHS has currently been authorized to test at the border. 

It did, however, say this about concerns with the technology:

Critics cite that despite the stated intent of the ADS to be a non-lethal device designed to temporarily incapacitate, and despite that ADS had undergone legal and treaty compliance reviews ... and determined to be in compliance with the applicable laws and treaties, that modifications or misuse by an operator could nevertheless turn the ADS into a more damaging weapon which could potentially violate international conventions on warfare.

Some have focused on the lower threshold of use which may lead those who use them to become "trigger-happy," especially in dealing with peaceful protesters. Others have focused on concerns that weapons whose operative principle is that of inflicting pain (though "non-lethal") might be useful for such purposes as torture, as they may leave little or no evidence of use, but undoubtedly have the capacity to inflict horrific pain on a restrained subject. According to Wired, the ADS has been rejected for fielding in Iraq due to Pentagon fears that it would be regarded as an instrument of torture.

The article also included:

In September 2020 it was revealed that federal officials had explored the use of the device and the Long Range Acoustic Device to disperse civilians protesting outside the White House in June of that year, but had been advised that the National Guard was not currently in possession of either device.

In August 2020, it was revealed that the use of the device had allegedly been considered in 2018 on the Mexico-United States border to prevent further illegal immigration.

Those sentences cited stories from the BBC, Guardian, New York Times and Forbes. 

This recent story from Scripps News does say the Pentagon has given DHS permission to test the device at the border:

The memo authorizes the “temporary loan” of one ADS system for seven months, starting in September, and states that it “shall not be operated by DoW (Department of War) personnel,” appearing to absolve the Pentagon of any responsibility for how the directed-energy system may ultimately be deployed.

The DHS permission was also reported in the Guardian. I assume that means September 2026, as in last month: so DHS already has the weapon.