Israel to Deploy Laser Missile Shield

: Feb 3, 2022 - : 1:28 pm

Israel has stepped up its efforts to complete the development and deployment of a laser based system to intercept rocket and missiles. This to be able to protect the country from a growing array of aerial threats. Israeli prime minster Prime Minister Naftali Bennett...

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Israeli prime minster Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday that Israel will deploy the first laser based defence system within a year.

Israeli defence officials told GBP that the prime minister's announcement is " optimistic" and that at least two years will be needed to test a full prototype.

Some Israeli defene industries continue to develop a laser based rocket interception systems using their own R&D budget.

Israel has a four-tiered defence system against rockets and missiles, but what was sufficient until some years ago, now looks inadequate to protect the Israeli population.

The Iron Dome and David's Sling rocket interceptors and the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 ballistic missiles interceptors are operational and one of the layers, the Iron Dome , is combat proven with an average of 88 % intercepts.

But this is not enough and will be even less capable in the future . So the IAF , is looking for other layers. This time, it looks like laser will be the tool to shoot down rockets. After it was pushed aside in favor of the Iron Dome rocket interceptor, the Laser beam that can do the same mission, probably better and with lower costs, is on its way back.

In recent months, Israel aerospace industries (IAI) and Rafael have been working hard to accelerate the development of a laser system that can shoot down rockets and mortar shells. Elbit demonstrated a laser system that was tested against aerial targets while carried by an aircraft.

According to IAI , a prototype of a laser cannon for intercepting mortar shells and similar short-range threats is in a very advanced stage of development, and successful experiments have already been carried out.

A few years ago, Rafael presented the first model of a laser gun called an "Iron Beam" designed to respond to shells fired from a range of up to 5 miles from the border. Iron Dome has difficulty coping because of the short time between the moment the launch is detected until it hits.

According to IAI , the main advantage of the laser is a fast reaction time. Therefore, such a system is good for dealing with short-range munitions such as mortars.

The U.S army and the IDF understand that the system has additional advantages over missile-based defence systems, since its arsenal of ammunition never ends. The cost of launching a laser beam is very low compared with an Iron Dome interception missile that is estimated to cost tens of thousands of dollars.

The Iron Dome and the David's Sling systems are now deployed on both borders to protect against rockets, but sources say that in the case of massive rocket attacks, and the need to launch more than one interceptor, the situation will be stretched to a critical point. According to some estimates, the IDF will have to fire a huge number of more than 30,000 interceptors from the Iron Dome system in order to intercept such a large number of rockets. The price of these could run to billions of dollars.