A system and method for adaptively controlling an active phased array antenna comprising a plurality of elements is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises determining a thermal profile of at least a portion the active phased array antenna, comparing the determined thermal profile with a reference thermal profile and deactivating only a subset of the plurality of elements according to a thinning pattern based at least in part on the comparison between the determined thermal profile and the reference thermal profile. Another embodiment is evidenced by an apparatus performing the foregoing operations.