Israel’s Laser Air Defense Revolution

For Israel, as for Ukraine, defending against drones has been a difficult and expensive endeavor. Drones are cheap and lethal. Air defense systems are expensive. Each of Israel’s Iron Dome batteries costs about $100 million, and interceptors can cost over $40,000. In the Ukraine war, it is estimated that the Shahed attack drones used by Russia coast about $35,000 each—while a PAC-3 Patriot interceptor costs about $3 million and an AIM 9-X variant called the NASAM costs about $1 million each.

So Israel has been developing a laser defense system, and in November 2023 used it for the first time— to shoot down an incoming rocket fired by terrorists in Gaza. Development of what Israel calls “Iron Beam” has continued and now, after a decade of work by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems company and its Ministry of Defense, the system is being deployed. It has shot down over 40 drones fired from Lebanon at the Galilee.

The war that began with the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023 sped up the development of Iron Beam. As the head of the laser system division in the IDF, Major G, said:

We conducted a controlled rollout in the field alongside industry engineers, which allowed us to learn the system in real time….We were operating during the most intense days of the war, when hostile drones were seen flying across the country and sirens were going off non-stop. The system's deployment significantly improved the Air Force’s ground-based defensive capabilities. Our air defense soldiers not only prevented strikes and saved lives, they also spared thousands of civilians from having to enter shelters….

The system being used now is mobile, and a stronger, higher-powered fixed-location system will follow by the end of this year. These laser systems mark a revolution in air defense—one in which Lockheed in the United States is also participating.

Once the system is built, the variable cost of shooting down a drone or other projectile is merely the cost of electricity and you can’t run out of interceptors after a swarm attack by drones. “The system essentially has an endless magazine,” Major G said. “Unlike a missile launcher, which needs physical munitions, the laser system—powered by electricity—can theoretically be used indefinitely. There’s no need for constant resupply.”

The U.S. program should be encouraged by Israeli advances. Breaking Defense reported in 2023 that:

The Defense Department has run hot and cold on lasers and high-powered microwaves for missile defense since the dawn of Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative 40 years ago. In recent years, there was a burst of interest driven by Congress in 2015 that subsequently died down, only to be re-ignited during the Trump administration….The problem has simply been that the technology hasn’t been ready for prime time. The executive director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said then that “I think part of [why] the Missile Defense Agency in the past few years kind of backed away was that technology needed still needed to mature.”

Now, it is maturing. "Israel is the first country in the world to present a large-scale operational laser interception capability. The vision of the laser was demonstrated during the war with immense operational and technological success,” said Brig. Gen Dr. Daniel Gold, the head of the IDF’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development.

Iron Beam is a game-changer. It is not a substitute for Iron Dome (used against short-range rockets), and the David’s Sling (cruise missiles and medium- to long-range rockets), Arrow and THAAD (intermediate-range and long-range ballistic missiles) systems, but is an additional air defense system that provides a cost-effective answer to the swarms of cheap drones that have become part of modern warfare. For the United States, there are plenty of uses—from defending U.S. bases around the world to helping allies like Ukraine and Taiwan face today’s and tomorrow’s drone attacks. The United States helped finance Israel’s development of Iron Beam, and—like the Israeli "Trophy" tank defense system being used on Abrams tanks by the U.S. Army—its success is another example of the value of Israel as an American ally. Drones have changed the battlefield. Laser defenses will change it again.