On Monday morning, a number of social media accounts circulated what they believed was an example of lasers intercepting Hezbollah rockets. The video showed rockets being launched from Lebanon, and many of the rockets appeared to explode soon after lift-off. The video did not show lasers intercepting rockets, but the mass interest in the new technology is clear.
Israel has pioneered the deployment of ground-based laser air defenses. The development of lasers for military uses has taken place for decades. Israel, the US, and other countries have worked on this technology. However, recent advances in technology have enabled lasers to finally become more practical for military uses.
What this means is that lasers can now be developed that can be packaged into a relatively small and mobile unit. The lasers can also reach ranges of around ten kilometers. Lasers are inexpensive to use, meaning that they can help cut down on the cost of using large numbers of missile interceptors to take down threats such as the relatively cheap Iranian-made Shahed 136 drone. The arms race for cheap systems matters. The US is also investing in one-way attack drones, similar to the Shahed. Lasers are a good way to stop cheap threats. What this means is that the promise of lasers has now arrived; there are still many limitations.
Israel has been working on lasers for years. In 2022, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said, “We have successfully completed a series of tests on our new ‘Iron Beam’ laser air defense system. This may sound like science fiction, but it’s real.” At the time, Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems was working on a ground-based laser system that was supposed to work alongside the Iron Dome air defense system.
Iron Dome is one part of Israel’s multi-tiered air defense systems. It works as the shorter-range defense system alongside David’s Sling and Arrow. The lasers are short-range. At the same time as Israel was working on the ground-based system, Israel’s Elbit Systems was also working on a laser system that might be used from the air. Mounting a laser on an airplane or drone can expand the capabilities of the system greatly because it can hover over areas and project the laser from the sky, rather than from the ground.
Over the last few years, Israel’s laser air defenses have come into use. The lasers were first used during Israel’s multi-front war. In May of 2025, Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced that the lasers had “successfully intercepted scores of enemy threats.” This success was followed by Rafael unveiling one variant of the defense system, known as Iron Beam 450, at the defense show DSEI in the UK. Iron Beam 450 is one of several variants of the system Rafael has made. Iron Beam 450 is named for the 450 millimeter aperture of the system.
The lasers Israel developed have different strengths. They are all high-energy lasers. These include the Lite Beam, which is a 10Kw laser, while Iron Beam-M is a 50Kw laser. The Iron Beam-M, which, like the Lite Beam, is mobile, can be mounted on a vehicle. The much-awaited laser defenses were deployed with the IDF at the end of December, 2025.
Israel’s Ministry of Defense noted at the time that “the system, which proved its effectiveness in an extensive series of tests against various threats and successfully intercepted rockets, mortars, and UAVs, will be integrated into the IAF and incorporated into Israel’s multi-layered aerial defense array as a complementary capability to the Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and Arrow systems.” One of the variants of the system is called Or Eitan in Hebrew.
© 2026, GDC. © GDC and www.globaldefensecorp.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to www.globaldefensecorp.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
