Israel’s Iron Beam Air Defense System Declared Operational, Set For Deployment This Year
The high-power laser-based system proved its effectiveness by “intercepting rockets, mortars, aircraft, and UAVs across a comprehensive range of operational scenarios.”
In the midst of a multi-front war, Israeli engineers have successfully tested a laser air defense system to shoot down missiles and drones, paving the way for its induction on the battlefield.
The Iron Beam, a high-power laser-based system, proved its effectiveness by “intercepting rockets, mortars, aircraft, and UAVs across a comprehensive range of operational scenarios,” said Rafael, the Israeli defense technology company, which co-developed the system with Elbit Systems.
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) will be operating the first of these systems by the end of this year. “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,” The Jerusalem Post reported Wednesday.
The laser-based system enormously reduces the cost of intercepting hostile missiles and drones. At the core of the Iron Beam is an electric laser aimer that focuses powerful beams at moving targets. “Operational up to several kilometers, the system uses an unlimited magazine at almost zero cost per intercept,” Rafael said.
The world’s first laser-based interception system that works!🇮🇱
Israel will share this life saver with our friends.
Watch: pic.twitter.com/my3xp9X7vh— Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) September 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of missiles, rockets, and drones have been launched at Israel by Iran and its terrorist proxies since Hamas’s attack on October 7, 2023. “Over 30,000 rockets, missiles and various other projectiles have been fired at Israel during the course of this war,” Israel’s Ynetnews observed in June 2025.
Reuters reported Wednesday:
A low-cost, high-power laser-based system aimed at destroying incoming missiles has successfully completed testing and will be ready for operational use by the military later this year, Israel’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday.
Co-developed by Elbit Systems, opens new tab and Rafael Advance Defense Systems, “Iron Beam” will complement Israel’s Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow anti-missile systems, which have been used to intercept thousands of rockets fired by Hamas militants in Gaza, by Hezbollah from Lebanon and by the Houthis in Yemen.
Current rocket interceptors cost at least $50,000 each while the cost is negligible for lasers, which focus primarily on smaller missiles and drones. “Now that the Iron Beam’s performance has been proven, we anticipate a significant leap in air defence capabilities through the deployment of these long-range laser weapon systems,” the ministry said.
After years in development, the ministry said it tested Iron Beam for several weeks in southern Israel and proved its effectiveness in a “complete operational configuration by intercepting rockets, mortars, aircraft, and UAVs across a comprehensive range of operational scenarios”.
Iron Beam 450 Reaches Final Development and Readiness for Delivery
Rafael, together with Israel’s Ministry of Defense, has completed the final series of trials for the Iron Beam 450, the world’s first operational high-energy laser defense system.
In these landmark tests, Iron… pic.twitter.com/fhKrB9rL5i
— Rafael Advanced Defense Systems (@RAFAELdefense) September 17, 2025
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems released the details of the new air defense system on its official website:
Iron Beam is a ground-based high-power laser air defense system designed to counter aerial threats, including rockets, mortars, and UAVs. It features an advanced targeting system that enables enhanced operational range, high precision, and superior efficiency while maintaining its unique advantage of rapidly neutralizing threats using laser technology at negligible cost. The R&D Unit within the Ministry’s DDR&D has spearheaded the system’s development, working alongside primary developer Rafael.
The Iron Beam system represents a global technological and engineering breakthrough, expected to integrate into Israel’s multi-layered defense array as a complementary capability to the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow air defense systems. The system utilizes Rafael’s unique “adaptive optics” technology, enabling a stable, focused, and precise beam.
The laser-based system is designed to enhance Israel’s existing air defense capabilities. “The Iron Beam is not meant to replace the Iron Dome or Israel’s other air defense systems, but to supplement and complement them, shooting down smaller projectiles and leaving larger ones for the more robust missile-based batteries such as the David’s Sling and Arrow systems,” The Times of Israel observed. “As long as there is a constant source of energy for the laser, there is no risk of it ever running out of ammunition.”
The Iron Dome and other systems will remain relevant as the Iron Beam and other “laser-guided systems face real-world obstacles such as clouds, haze and airborne particles,” Ynetnews notes.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz called the Iron Beam a ‘historic milestone’ for the country’s air defense array. “Achieving operational laser interception capability places the State of Israel at the forefront of global military technology and makes Israel the first nation to possess this capability,” Katz said.
“Our enemies from Gaza, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, and other arenas should know: just as we are strong in defense, we are strong in offense – and we will do everything to protect the security of Israeli citizens,” Katz added.
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Comments
It’s just a matter of turning the knob from “eye surgery” to “vaporize tank.”
What happens in fog?
Like any light beam, it’s diffused by dust and water droplets. It would depend on how dense the dissipating medium is. Iron Beam will cut the cost of air defense but how much remains to be seen. They should save a lot of shekels with it but it will need its own defense so the savages won’t knock it out.
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Next step is to move the laser frequency into the xray range. I don’t think a xray laser is bothered by fog or clouds. It probably takes a lot of power though.
The good news for Israel is a lot of their climate is desert so in those areas probably not a lot of fog to deal with.
The opposite, I fear. As frequency rises (wavelength shrinks), atmospheric humidity and dust effects get more severe, not less. In the case of x-ray lasers, the situation is practically degenerate — atmospheric humidity does little further damage to the beam’s performance because it is already largely defeated by atmospheric nitrogen and oxygen molecules.
Hmmm….what about the opposite end of the spectrum then?
When I was a radiology resident—a looooong time ago—we had to tske an x-ray physics course since physics is part of the board exam.* Back in the day before everything was digital, you got a piece of x-ray film with an image on it, and that was that. If the contrast level was low, you couldn’t just narrow the density window to improve it: what you saw was what you got. So the kVp and mAs settings were critical to optimizing the image.
Compton scattering was the biggest enemy of image contrast, and it was roughly proportional to the kVp (kilovoltage peak) setting. But you needed enough kilovoltage to get adequate penetration, especially in large patients.
I had asked the question of an x-ray laser, which would have all but eliminated the effect Compton scattering would have on the image since scattering has to reduces photon energy, and you could choose a phosphor that had an energy minimum. The prof agreed that a plane wave x-ray would eliminate the problem, but no one had yet created one. That was circa 50 years ago.
Now we don’t need it, but the thought process was there.
* It used to be pretty much physics for poets rather than for masochists, but it was still nominally physics.
Use at on those savages. A CO2 laser does pass through air. I won+++der how well that would work on terrorist’s. A maser is the radio wave version of a laser, though they are very different.
When I was a radiology resident—a looooong time ago—we had to tske an x-ray physics course since physics is part of the board exam.* Back in the day before everything was digital, you got a piece of x-ray film with an image on it, and that was that. If the contrast level was low, you couldn’t just narrow the density window to improve it: what you saw was what you got. So the kVp and mAs settings were critical to optimizing the image.
Compton scattering was the biggest enemy of image contrast, and it was roughly proportional to the kVp (kilovoltage peak) setting. But you needed enough kilovoltage to get adequate penetration, especially in large patients.
I had asked the question of an x-ray laser, which would have all but eliminated the effect Compton scattering would have on the image since scattering has to reduces photon energy, and you could choose a phosphor that had an energy minimum. The prof agreed that a plane wave x-ray would eliminate the problem, but no one had yet created one. That was circa 50 years ago.
Now we don’t need it, but the thought process was there.
* It used to be pretty much physics for poets rather than for masochists, but it was still nominally physics.
Good question. Grab a copy of Arthur C. Clarke’s book, Glide Slope. It describes how the RAF dealt with the problem in foggy old England during WWII—they put high powered heaters along the runways. When a plane was near, they fired them up. This dissipated the fog in seconds and gave incoming RAF planes clear views of the runways. As soon as they landed, they turned them off and the fog rolled right back in.
A high-powered laser will create its own version of this, but over a much longer distance. The way it works is to project a large amount of heat over a long distance. Radar tells the weapon where to aim, so it’s not just poking around the sky hoping to find a target. And since light travels at, well, the speed of light,* you don’t have to lead the target.
* About a foot per nanosecond, which is orders of magnitude faster than the fastest target can possibly move. Compare that, for example, to orbital velocity around earth, which clocks in at around 17,000 mph, or about 25,000 feet per second. In that same second, light will have travelled just under a BILLION feet. Five orders of magnitude faster.. If the word, “arab” is written on an incoming missile traveling at mach 3, and you aim at the “a,” it might hit as far away as the “r.”
They can hit an incoming mortar round with that thing. Amazing stuff. I wonder what the threshold is for fog/clouds and particulates.
When I was an Abrams crewman there were times when you could see your target clearly enough but fog or smoke would cause the laser range finder to give a negative return. We’d have to rely on analog backup systems to determine proper range to target.
It needs to be in orbit. Honestly.
The world needs actual Jew Lasers In Space!
“Jew Lasers In Space”
Sounds like a 1950s sci fi movie.
Or a Kosher Muppets sketch.
See? MTG was right! Jewish Space Lasers!! Now, about HARP…
Definitely much more important to use these systems as offensive weapons. From space (or just from regular aircraft or drones) these lasers would pose indefensible threats to so many enemy elements and people. And at a cost of pennies!!
Israel is going to have a short window when they are the only ones with this. I would say that this technology is a game changer on par with nukes.
It’s part of an integrated layered defense system, it doesn’t need to see anything, there are a multitude of sensors that are air and land based that share targeting information. All of the defenses are networked together.
It’s not seeing that is the issue. Fog or even water vapor can diffuse the beam. Diffused beams may not do enough damage to bring down the target.
Israel’s enemies are going to have to get creative with weapon/munition design to adapt to this.
israeli exceptionalism
wonder if any dei hires by the idf actually created this and then we’ll learn about it in some hollywood movie decades later how they were cheated out of their royalties
I have to wonder about the dual lasers… can the system operate with just one or do two beams need to intercept to do a quick(er) kill?
While promo video may be a bit of a maskirovka – the unit shown has its internals hidden in that cargo container sized box – the deployed / operational version may have its “laser cannons” less distinctive looking and the power source for sustained engagements – like Iran and Hamas already employ to overwhelm Iron Dome – may need to be quite a bit bigger.
Either massive batteries or even a small mini-nuke power plant.
My understanding of the current SOTA is a trailer-transportable micro-reactor can put out 1-10 MW, a larger (still transportable) mini-reactor 10-300 MW.
A few hundred KW should suffice for most targets, ballistic or hypersonic missiles may require a MW or more. Add in cooling of the apparatus and unless you have some sort of Gatling multi-barrel setup sustained operation may only be a few minutes at a time.
Further thought on it I think the dual lasers might make energy efficiency & overheating sense.
It’s entirely possible at the high energy throughput required it’s better to use two 1/2 power units rather than one with the same #of Gillettes output – because unit overheating can increase non-linearly – ie like a Gatling multiple “barrels” extend how long you can sustain fire.
(I’ve no experience with current weapons-grade lasers – but in my salad days the unit we measured laser power was by “Gillettes” – the #of Gillette disposable razor blades it could pierce a hole in.)
Does this mean that all of those hours we logged as kids playing Missile Command on the Atari would count as training?
Most drones in use are of the FPV types which have a range of at least 15 km and are used primarily to attack troops, trenches, bunkers, vehicles on the line of contact (LOC). Mechanical infantry, if you will.
With 5 to 10 second heating times required for each target, these lasers would only be able to handle somewhere around 10 targets per laser per minute maximum, so their best use would be to protect major cities and other locations off the LOC.
Lasers would be helpful defending cities, but since most troops and equipment are destroyed on the LOC, the lasers will not be decisive.
Just a reminder to everyone
If we want to use this it is ours for the taking for free vis a vis paying Israel because of our special relationship.
I am sure the U.S. High Command is witnessing tests involving the Iron Beam right now.