Terrorism in the Middle East is like all warfare: advances (or "advances") in offensive power are met with advances in defensive technique; the two leapfrog each other in perpetuity.
In the seventies, the PLO launched terrorist attacks against schools in the Kibbutzim. When the Israelis learned to counter them, the terrorisrts switched tactics - mostly to the occasional barrages of cheap, unguided terror rockes that have been pelting Israel off and on for the past few decades.
But "Defense" has taken a big jump since October 7. This past Wednesday, the IDF officially announced something that's been in the rumor mill for years: they've been shooting down "dozens" of Hamas and Hezb'allah "aerial threats" - rockets, missiles, drones, even potentially mortar rounds - using two different classes of laser and directed-energy weapons:
"Historic breakthrough: IDF reveals Iron Beam-like laser defense shot down dozens of aerial threats" - Jerusalem Post #SmartNews https://t.co/nrNbEXfhhs
— B Beach (@soeedtrap55) May 29, 2025
According to the Defense Ministry, the Iron Beam and a related family of laser defense systems, produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, are the most advanced and operational lasers in the world, though England, the US, and others also have relatively advanced laser platforms.
Sources have told the Post that what makes the Iron Beam the most advanced is its reliability in different kinds of weather, variable range, adaptability to different kinds of aerial threats, and the ability to place it in different contexts.
Other sources said that they could not reveal the name of the sister-laser system to the Iron Beam, whose progress was being publicly revealed on Wednesday.
Along with "Iron Beam", the Israelis are apparently producing a extra-secret "Lite Beam", which is designed to operated with the Israeli "Trophy" system, which currently protects tanks and other vehicles from anti-tank rockets and missiles:
While not as much of a watershed moment as the Iron Beam, the Lite Beam is still a powerful example of Israel succeeding in using layers, at least for short-range defense. Defense sources told the Post that the Lite Beam’s operational capabilities have been proven, though they declined to disclose exactly when and how the IDF has used such capabilities in the field in Gaza or Lebanon.
While Israel has led the world (out of pure necessity) in employing point defense systems like Iron Dome against incoming rockets, missiles and mortar rounds, existing rocket-based defenses cost as much as $50,000 dollars per missile - which is a big invesment and expense, to shoot down a "Grad" Rocket that costs less than a pizza and breadsticks for a family of four; even "relatively cheap" systems like the land and sea based versions of the American "Phalanx" Close In Weapons System (CIWS, or "Sea-Whiz") fire 20mm rounds that cost around $30 a per round. Which seems reasonable, except they get fired in two second bursts of 100-200 rounds per incoming threat, meaning $3-6,000 to shoot down a drone costing a couple hundred dollars, or a Katyusha rocket costing not much more than one of the 20mm rounds.
The lasers flip the math on its head:
This integration will significantly enhance Israel’s defense capabilities against current and future threats while offering substantially lower operational costs, with some estimates as low as $2-$3.50 per laser shot, compared with $40,000-50,000 for an Iron Dome interceptor.
At later stages, the IDF hopes to deploy laser defenses also on IAF jets, but this could take much longer, with vague estimates of an additional five to 10 years.
When the system is operational, and assuming it's reasonably effective, this will change the balance of power, or at least of terror, in the Middle East.
Until the next adaptation, of course.
