AUSA NEWS: Israel's Iron Beam On Track for Deployment This Year

Josh Luckenbaugh

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Iron Beam high-energy laser weapon is on track to be deployed by the Israel Defense Forces this year following the use of a prototype version in combat operations, officials from manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems said Oct. 13.

The system — a 100-kilowatt high-energy laser weapon — in recent months “was heavily tested against dozens of [interceptors] in real scenarios and was accepted by” the Israeli air force, Rafael CEO Yoav Turgeman said in an interview at the Association of the United States Army’s annual conference in Washington, D.C.

With Iron Beam certified for production, “it can be fielded by the end of 2025 according to the initial plan” and be integrated with Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense architecture that features kinetic interceptors, said Daniel Tsemach, Rafael’s international media manager.

An Iron Beam prototype has already seen action in Israel intercepting “many dozens of targets in a real environment, in real battle — so, it’s combat-proven” — and the final version of the system incorporates lessons learned from that prototype fielding, Turgeman said.

Some of the lessons include increasing maintainability and making it easier for warfighters to operate, Turgeman said.

Iron Beam will be operated by “very young soldiers that are not highly skilled … so the system has to be simplified in a way that it will be easy to be used and easy to be maintained,” he said.

Additionally, the artificial intelligence that will enhance the system’s performance has also become more sophisticated over time, he added.

As opposed to “hard kill” interceptors that create debris when they hit their target and can cause collateral damage, with Iron Beam “there is no interceptor debris,” and by using AI “we can decide where to intercept and how to intercept the target to minimize the collateral damage,” he said.