The Israelis are constantly working to improve their weaponry, both as to performance and as to cost. The Iron Dome anti-missile system, first introduced in 2006, has been impressive enough, capable of intercepting more than 90% of the missiles launched toward Israel.
However, it is expensive: each interception requires the firing of two Tamir missiles. Each Tamir missile costs $40,000, meaning that each interception costs $80,000. But now the Israeli scientists at Rafael and Elbit have developed a high-energy laser system that will reduce the cost of such interceptions to the scarcely believe price of two dollars.
Here are some details from an October 2024 story that remains pertinent:
The Defense Ministry announced on Monday that it signed an agreement with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Elbit Systems valued at around NIS two billion ($534 million) to significantly expand its acquisition of Iron Beam laser interception systems.
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Elbit Systems are Israeli defense technology companies.
The agreement was signed the day after the Defense Ministry’s Director-General Eyal Zamir signed an order to broaden the laser system’s production, the ministry said.
“Since the outbreak of the war, the Defense Ministry has signed hundreds of orders worth tens of billions of shekels” to strengthen the country’s independence by manufacturing products in Israel and “to build up the IDF’s capabilities,” Zamir said. “Our primary goal is to reduce reliance on external sources and to bolster the Israeli industry,” he further added.
The Israelis, having been stung by the embargos, both partial and full, on weapons sales to Israel put in place by Spain, the U.K., France, and previously by the Biden administration, are keen to become as independent as possible in the manufacture of weapons the country needs.
On its website, Rafael described the Iron Beam as a “100kW class, high energy laser weapon system” that is anticipated to be the first such system in its class.
According to the company, it is effective at targeting threats at distances ranging from hundreds of meters to several kilometers away.
A ‘HIGH-POWER LASER SOLUTION’
Additionally, as former prime minister Naftali Bennett noted during a 2022 visit to a Rafael factory, as opposed to the Iron Dome system, which costs tens of thousands of dollars for each interceptor fired, the Iron Beam system costs around two dollars per use.
In a press statement, Elbit Systems announced on Monday that the Defense Ministry had awarded it an approximately $200 million contract.
Elbit stated that the contract was awarded to the company to supply Israel’s Iron Beam air defense system with high-power laser systems.
Israeli scientists are the gift that keep on giving.
Their latest achievement are these high-energy lasers that can be used to shoot down oncoming missiles. Now the IDF will be able to use the Iron Beam, a missile interception system based on the use of high-energy lasers, that will cost not what each Iron Dome interception now costs —$80,000 for two Tamir missiles — but only two dollars.
What other amazements will come out of the scientists at Elbit and Rafael Systems? And thank god that Israel is on our side.