Iron Beam by Isabella Maylel

December 2, 2024

Israel’s Race for Laser Defense Systems

Israel has a variety of air defense systems designed to counter threats at different ranges and from diverse types of inbound munitions. All of the existing systems are shooting missiles at foreign projectiles and flying objects. However, this approach has flaws. The defense systems can be overwhelmed due to the systems lengthy reload times. In addition, these missiles Israel shoots are quite expensive and can cause quite a bit of damage when they come back down to the ground.

An additional option in the works is the sci-fi idea of a directed energy defense weapon, such as using lasers to defend against missiles and other smaller weapons including drones and mortars. This idea of laser defense weapons has been in the works for years. Some describe this technology as being “always 10 years away.” 

Laser is an acronym for ‘light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation’. Lasers produce a focused, monochromatic beam of light by amplifying synchronized light waves. This coherent, collimated light can be quite precise and efficient for applications like cutting, welding, and directed energy weapons. Lasers are very common nowadays but these directed energy defensive weapons would not be your average cat laser pointer, they would be extremely powerful. The lasers used for defense would use infrared light, light non-visible to the human eye. These lasers would transfer energy almost instantly, at the speed of light, into heat energy.

Unfortunately, many issues arise trying to focus light over a long distance through air. One of these issues is the fact that as light travels, it naturally spreads out, reducing their energy density and precision over distance. Another one of these issues is that the atmosphere causes some amount of light scattering. In addition, as the light from the laser travels through the air, some of its energy goes towards heating up the air. This not only causes a loss of energy, but also creates localized temperature differences that further distort the beam by creating small lenses that cause additional spreading and reduce precision. 

All of these issues contribute to the difficulties faced to get enough power and precision. This need for power and precision is extremely amplified by the fact time to melt something, and the heat needs to continue for a few seconds on almost exactly the same point.

Nonetheless, a contractor of Israels that created much of Israel's defense systems, a company named ‘Rafael’ is working on one of these laser based directed energy defense weapons called the iron beam. This would be in addition to the rest of Israels defense system, and would potentially be an incredible silent, invisible, and cheap solution for close range interceptions of small aerial munition such as anti-tank missiles and suicide drones. 

So far, Rafael is working on 2 main components of the iron beam for Israel. The first is a HEL Laser Defense, ideal for “small and short-range ballistic threats”, up to several kilometers away. The second is a “LITE BEAM”, another HEL interceptor, ideal for very short distances from a few hundred meters up to 2000m. This LITEBEAM will be used for very small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and explosive devices that may have not detonate as intended when deployed.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome