Iron Beam

Israel’s first operational high-power laser air-defense system — a 100 kW directed-energy weapon designed to intercept rockets, mortar bombs and drones at a fraction of the cost of kinetic interceptors, now woven into the Iron Dome network.

Overview

Iron Beam (official English name: Laser Dome, Hebrew: Or Eitan) is a ground-based, high-energy laser air-defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems with Elbit Systems as the laser source and Lockheed Martin on a US-market derivative. Designed to burn through cheap, massed aerial threats — rockets, mortar shells, one-way attack drones and, per manufacturer claims, some missile types — out to approximately ten kilometres, the system’s selling point is economics: each engagement costs single-digit dollars in electricity, compared with the $50,000-plus per Tamir missile fired by the co-located Iron Dome. The Israel Ministry of Defense declared Iron Beam operational in September 2025 and delivered the first full-production battery to the Israeli Air Force in December 2025, making it the world’s first fielded high-power laser air-defense system, according to Rafael and Wikipedia.

Development

Israel’s combat-laser lineage traces back to the US–Israel Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL) of the late 1990s, which shot down 28 Katyushas in testing but was abandoned as too bulky and expensive. Rafael resurrected the concept in solid-state form, unveiling the Iron Beam at the Singapore Airshow in February 2014. A breakthrough live-fire campaign at the White Sands test range in April 2022 destroyed drones, rockets, mortars and an anti-tank missile, with then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett broadcasting a $3.50-per-shot figure, as reported by The Times of Israel.

Following the October 2023 Hamas attack and the multi-front war that ensued, Israel put interim, scaled-down lasers into the field as a crash program. On 28 May 2025 the Defense Ministry, IDF and Rafael disclosed that prototypes — assessed by Israeli media as Lite Beam and Iron Beam-M class, with no full Iron Beam components — had been intercepting Hezbollah drones since October 2024, including some 35–40 one-way attack drones. The ministry called the interceptions “the world’s first operational use of high-power lasers for air defense,” according to Breaking Defense. The definitive 100 kW Iron Beam completed its final qualification campaign in the summer of 2025 and was declared operational on 17 September 2025. Rafael handed over the first production system to the Israeli Air Force on 28 December 2025, with a nationwide battery rollout ordered within days and Knesset budget covering “as many batteries as needed,” detailed in The Jerusalem Post.

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