Battle of the Beams

According to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, the answer is yes.

“Israel will begin using a laser-based missile interception system within a year, first experimentally and then operationally, beginning in the south and then elsewhere,” Bennett revealed in a speech to the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) last week, without going into details.

So is this Iron Dome II, or — like the superheated particles that the systems use — premature hot air?

Defense establishment sources speak of a groundbreaking technology estimated to become operational within three years — not one year, as Bennett claimed — which is expected to enable the development of laser-based air defense systems for intercepting rocket and missile threats. In successful experiments last year, a laser system installed on an aircraft was able to intercept UAVs at various ranges and altitudes.