Israel's Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday evening that Israel would deploy
a laser air defense system to protect against rockets and UAVs.
The important part is that it will be deployed within the year, which is far faster than
what the officials have said in the past.
PM Bennett said at the Institute for National Security Studies’ annual international conference
in Tel Aviv, “Initially, as a trial, afterward operationally”
This development has significant geopolitical ramifications.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how Israel is planning to surround itself with
a wall of lasers?
Let's get into the details.
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Mr. Bennett said the system would first be deployed in the south, where Israeli towns
have seen most attacks originating from the Gaza Strip.
Eventually, he said, Israel will be surrounded by a “laser wall that protects us from rockets,
missiles, UAVs.”
Bennett stressed that the system’s most important contribution would be to change
the current reality in which Hamas can fire inexpensive rockets that Israel intercepts
with missiles costing tens of thousands of dollars.
He said, “They will waste a lot of money, and we, very little,”
Mr. Bennett also indicated that Israel would seek to sell the technology abroad.
He added, “This new generation of Israeli air defense will also be able to serve our
friends in the region” This can be interpreted in the context of
Iran-backed Houthis firing a missile at the United Arab Emirates while President Isaac
Herzog was visiting.
Israel has a multi-layered air defense system designed to tackle a variety of different
threats.
This includes Iron Dome designed to knock down unguided rockets, mortars, artillery,
David’s Sling and the U.S built Patriot to counter threats like aircraft and cruise
missiles, Arrow-2 to counter short- to medium-range ballistic missiles, and Arrow-3 to take out
medium- and intermediate-range weapons.
Arrow 4 is being developed to neutralize ICBMs and advance threats including hypersonic weapons.
All these systems use interceptor rockets to knock out incoming projectiles.
This makes them economically unviable in case of mass attack since the incoming projectiles
could be very cheap whereas the interceptors are very costly.
For example, each Tamir interceptor used by Iron Dome has a reported unit cost of $100,000
to $150,000 while the rockets flung by Hamas militants will be a fraction of this cost.
Last year, Hamas had launched a massive onslaught with more than 1000 rockets designed to saturate
the Iron dome system.
While Iron Dome held its own even at that time, it came at a great cost.
Israel had to request a billion dollars in aid from the U.S to replenish the Iron Dome
batteries that were used to protect Israel in the 11-day conflict.
The technology of unguided small rockets, cruise missiles and drones has proliferated
in the last 4-5 years.
Israel is at the crosshair of Iran which has made significant progress in this field and
has transferred the technologies to its proxies.
Israel’s most immediate adversaries - the non-state actors like Hamas and Hezbollah
have made considerable strides in this area.
The initial plan for deployment of the laser weapon system was by 2024, but the military
has pushed it earlier driven by concerns that in a future conflict, the military would not
have sufficient interceptor missiles for the Iron Dome and other air defense systems to
shoot down the incoming rockets, missiles and drones.
Viewers may note that the Israeli Defense Ministry has been testing the laser-based
defense system for several years.
Last year it successfully intercepted multiple drones during a test of an airborne high-power
laser weapon.
The demonstration was carried out by the Israeli Air Force’s (IAF) “Yanat” missile test
unit, Israel’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D), and Israeli defense
contractor Elbit Systems.
Videos posted online show the laser system is deployed on a Cessna 208 Caravan behind
a windowed panel on the left side of the aircraft's rear fuselage.
While very little technical data regarding the system have been released, DDR&D's Head
of Research and Development, Brig. Gen. Yaniv Rotem stated that the system successfully
intercepted drones at a range of more than 1 km or 0.62 miles.
Iron Dome is considered to be the most used air defense system.
According to Israel, it has been used to intercept targets with a greater than 90% success rate
since it was deployed in 2011.
But as explained, it has its limitations.
Laser weapons don’t need to carry interceptors and hence they will be able to take out a
much larger number of threats constrained only by the power supply limit of the platform.
If fitted to an airborne platform, their effectiveness will be increased many fold as unlike ground-based
systems they won't be restricted by the curvature of the earth and have a far longer line-of-sight.
The cost obviously will be much lesser compared to traditional weapons and this actually tilts
the dynamics of battle in favor of Israel.
If successful, this is will usher in a new reality for the enemies of Israel