The Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that Israel's "Iron Beam" is now operational and that a full series of batteries will be deployed across the country to provide cutting-edge new air defense capabilities within the coming months.
Already in June, the ministry and Rafael, the lead company of multiple defense tech companies involved, including also Elbit and others, had announced that Lite Beam, a smaller relative of Iron Beam, was operational.
At the time, the ministry also disclosed that Israeli laser defense systems had shot down around 40 Hezbollah drones in October 2024.
However, Wednesday's news signals multiple additional jumps forward.
What's new?
Second, Iron Beam can specifically shoot down not only drones, but also missiles, rockets, and mortars, making it far more formidable than if it were only capable of shooting down drones, a relatively slow-moving threat.
Third, the announcement means that Iron Beam batteries will be produced and dispersed around the country at scale, as opposed to serving in just one or two locations where its impact would take time to be judged.
The ministry and the IDF expect Iron Beam to immediately start reducing the cost of shooting down aerial threats, an issue that has been out of control for Israel during this war, in which tens of thousands of threats have been launched through the air at Israel on six fronts.
Firing Arrow interceptors can cost millions of shekels, Iron Dome interceptors can cost tens of thousands of shekels, but firing the Iron Beam is as cheap as turning a light on.
Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Baram said that the current announcement regarding Iron Beam was only the foundation stone to start the process, which will change battle zones worldwide until they become filled invariably with cheaper laser platforms.
Security officials stated that Iron Beam also has the capacity to counter barrages of simultaneous aerial threats and is not limited to shooting down one or two at a time.
Head of the directorate’s R&D Division, Brig.-Gen. Yehuda Elmakayes, said that the Knesset already approved an extensive budget two years ago to cover as many Iron Beam batteries as would be needed at this stage of deployment.
In June, IDF M.-Sgt. "A" told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview that his time on the laser team protecting the country with this game-changing, cutting-edge system has been "incredible."
A is a reservist who was stationed in the North to work on how to operate the laser in real combat situations, and who had spent time in the IDF's air defense units, mostly over a decade ago, but returned to assist when the current war broke out.
He said that he and everyone else had to learn how to best operate the laser in real time in the field since it is essentially something that no one has ever done before.
"We received the system, we made adjustments while operating in the field, and we improved with the industry developers [Rafael] after we got a better understanding of what we needed to increase our shoot-down success," said A.
Although Raytheon in the US, as well as England, Russia, China, Germany, and Japan, are all at various stages of developing laser defense systems, the ministry said on Wednesday that Iron Beam is the only one that has moved beyond test firings to actual use in the field.
Defense sources also revealed on Wednesday that the new family of lasers could eliminate the need for Israelis to run to bomb shelters versus most aerial threats.
They explained that a major advantage of lasers, such as Iron Beam, Iron Beam M, and Lite Beam, is that they can shoot down enemy rockets and drones much earlier in the threat process. This means that most of the time, no siren warnings or bomb shelters would be necessary.
How does this work?
Light energy of laser travels much faster than Israeli interceptors
The reason would be that the light energy of the laser travels much faster than any interceptor in Israel's arsenal and would already potentially destroy the enemy aerial threat shortly after it launches, and invariably while still in enemy territory.In fact, because the laser fires so much faster, the IDF will also likely have more chances to hit a target that it initially misses, since it will know it has missed earlier on in the process.
That means that Israelis would likely only hear a siren and need to run to bomb shelters in those rare cases where the laser system missed its target, and then likely missed it multiple more times.
The Lite Beam is the smallest and most local short-range system of Israel's three laser systems, which can be placed on individual ground forces vehicles and fires a 10-kilowatt beam.
Iron Beam M fires a 250 millimeter 50 kilowatt beam and can be mounted on large trucks for mobility, but cannot be placed as a minor additional system on individual vehicles.
Sources have also indicated that the Iron Beam M is not only generally mobile, but can even be fired while moving.
The full-size Iron Beam fires a 450 millimeter 100 kilowatt beam, is designed to remain stationary for periods of time, and cannot be fired while moving. However, it can, with advance planning, be moved around just as Iron Dome batteries, over time, can be moved around.