According to the Israeli media "Jerusalem Post" reported, recently, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that Israel plans to build a "laser wall" to greatly reduce the cost of Israel's resistance to incoming missiles, and he also said that the laser defense system is expected to be put into use next year. At the end of the press conference held at the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Bennett also stressed that in the long run, the laser system currently under development will provide Israel with a "laser protective wall" to protect Israel from missiles, rockets, drones and other threats.
According to Israeli media, israel has been working on laser air defense technology for the past few decades, which can be traced back to the development of tactical high-energy laser systems in the late last century and early this century. In fact, Israel has a great demand for research on laser defense weapons.
Since the founding of the country, Israel's surroundings can be described as a strong enemy, in recent years, with the continuous improvement of opponents' drone and ballistic missile technology, Israel is facing an increasing sense of crisis. For a long time, Israel has developed and deployed a large number of anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems on its territory in response to ballistic missiles that may come from Iran, rockets from Lebanon's Allah Party and Hamas in Gaza, and drone strikes in Syria. However, in recent years, Israel has suddenly found that the cost of intercepting rockets from Gaza and Lebanon with its own anti-missile systems such as "Iron Dome" and Arrow is too high, so it is imperative to accelerate the development of low-cost laser interception technology.
As early as last January, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced that the laser interception technology developed by Israel has made a great breakthrough. Its director of defense research and development, Brigg, said in an interview that Israel is entering a new era of war in the air, land and sea, and the investment in research and development in the past few years has made Israel a leader in the field of high-energy laser systems. However, the specific progress made and the extent of the research and development process have not been disclosed by Israeli officials.
Last April, the head of Israel's Missile Defense Organization said that land-based laser defense weapons would be added to Israel's "Iron Dome" defense system, while Raphael Advanced Defense Systems (the developer and producer of the Iron Dome system) also showed footage of the use of lasers to attack small drones. Israel's laser system is currently being developed by two of its largest defense companies in the country, with Raphael Advanced Defense Systems in charge of the ground system and Israel's Elbit Systems in charge of the airborne system.
In addition, in October 2020, the Israeli military also said that Israel is negotiating cooperation with the United States to develop an anti-missile laser interceptor system launcher. Israel's military-technical cooperation with the United States has a long history, for example, the "Iron Dome" system was jointly developed by the United States and Israel. Moreover, in recent years, the United States has also continued to exert efforts in the field of laser weapons, the most typical of which is the test firing of laser weapons by the US Navy in the Gulf of Aden in December last year. However, the focus of the United States and Israel seems to be different, with Israel's laser research and development mainly focused on land-based, while the United States focused on sea-based.
For the low-cost "laser technology interception" scheme, there are many doubts in Israel. Uzrubin, founder and first director of the Israeli Missile Defense Organization, expressed his 4 doubts in an interview with Israel's Defense News. First, while the cost of defeating an incoming threat with a laser may be low, the cost of acquiring and maintaining the technology can be high. Second, laser weapon systems are susceptible to weather conditions, especially in the event of fog, rain, or other bad weather, and their interception effectiveness is greatly reduced.
Third, the low lethality rate of this technology is a challenge. Uzrubin pointed out that under normal circumstances, laser technology can destroy an incoming rocket in 2-3 seconds, but if the enemy fires at a speed of two to four rockets per second, this will create a big problem. Especially in the Israeli-Hamas conflict last May, Uzrubin suddenly discovered that Hamas had increased its rocket launch rate, firing up to 125 rockets in a few minutes. So Uzrubin stressed: the other side fired 20 rounds, Israel can also aim 20 rounds, but the laser can only aim at each one individually for interception.
Fourth, the range of laser weapons is very limited. It will disperse after a period of firing, and as the distance increases, the power of the laser weapon will weaken. Today, the dispersed defense range of the laser beam is only 8-10 kilometers. In response, Uzrubin asserted: This is a kind of local defense, which means that many laser systems need to be deployed to place in many areas; but it will not kill the other side's salvo.
However, despite many domestic doubts, the head of laser weapon research and development of Raphael Advanced Defense Systems told reporters that laser technology will not be a separate system, and the company is installing the launcher of the laser weapon in the "Iron Dome" system, which will be used with the original missile interception system. At present, laser technology research and development is becoming a new field in the competition of major powers, and although there are many doubts in Israel, the Israeli government has been continuously advancing. With Israel's strong military technology strength, in time, it is likely to make more breakthroughs in this field.