Jerusalem: Israel expects a new laser system that can intercept rockets, drones and mortars at negligible cost to be operational next year after an accelerated manufacturing process.
The shield, known as Iron Beam, would supplement existing Israeli air defences that have been stretched by more than a year of fighting with Iran and its proxies in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. It is designed to disable incoming projectiles by heating them using a high-energy laser, as opposed to shooting them down with missiles.
The new system has an effective range of between hundreds of meters and several kilometres, and would thus complement the short-range Iron Dome rocket interceptor, according to state-owned Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, the manufacturer of both the types of weaponry.
Whereas it costs about $60,000 to shoot down a projectile using the Iron Dome, Iron Beam’s price tag will be as little as $5, according to an industry source.
The laser system would also eliminate the danger of interceptor debris causing damage.
Iron Beam is being manufactured at an accelerated pace and is “due to enter operational service one year from today,” Eyal Zamir, the Defence Ministry’s director-general, said at the announcement of a 2 billion-shekel ($536 million) investment in the manufacturing of the system on Monday. This is “the tiding of the start of a new era in the battlefield “- the laser era,” he said.
$5.2b US emergency funding
Israel’s aerial defences have largely been developed in conjunction with key ally the US, which recently deployed one of its own THAAD interceptors to help fend off potential ballistic missile attacks from Iran.
Israel expects $5.2 billion in emergency funding from the US, some of which would be used for Iron Beam, Zamir said on October 21.
The system is aimed at improving the interception of drones and other projectiles, which Hezbollah in Lebanon has fired at Israel since the start of the war in Gaza in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas.
The iron Dome has been unable to intercept every projectile launched by the Lebanese armed group, resulting in both civilian and military casualties.
Rafael Advanced Defence Systems is Israel’s national defence research and development arm.
Defence company Elbit said in a separate statement the ministry granted it a contract worth about $200 million specifically to develop Iron Beam.
Israel announced in late September it had received a new US military aid package worth $8.7 billion, at a time when it is at war with both Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The ministry said $5.2 billion of that was designated for air defence systems, including “supporting the continued development of an advanced high-powered laser defence system currently in its later stages of development”.
After a test in 2021, the defence ministry published a video showing a laser system on a small aircraft fire an energy beam at a drone, apparently burning a hole and setting it ablaze.
Israel’s current air defence features a multi-layered shield that helped to intercept a large number of around 200 missiles launched by Iran on October 1.
Iron Dome offers short-range protection against missiles and rockets, such as projectiles fired from Gaza and Lebanon.
David’s Sling and successive generations of Arrow missiles are Israeli-American technology paid for with US aid and built to bring down ballistic missiles.
