Israel is building a new laser wall that can protect the country against missiles, UAVs, and rockets, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said. He also acknowledged that the country’s famed Iron Dome defense system was too pricey.
Bennett, while talking at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv Tuesday, said the new missile interception technology will be ready within a year, reported The Jerusalem Post. The system will start operating first experimentally in the South of the country.
“This will allow us, in the medium-to-long term, to surround Israel with a laser wall that will defend us from missiles, rockets, UAVs, and other threats that will essentially take away the strongest card our enemies have against us,” Bennett added.
The system is expected to be deployed on land, in the air, and at sea. The powerful airborne laser system, when it was installed on light aircraft last year, had intercepted drones and downed several UAVs at a range of one kilometer with a 100% success rate.
The plan is to build a laser with a power of 100 kilowatts that will have an effective range of 20 km.
With regard to the expenses incurred to use the Iron Dome system, the Prime Minister said Iron Dome takes tens of thousands of dollars to shoot down a rocket that just costs hundreds of dollars.
Read the article by in International Business Times.