Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that the timeline on deploying its first laser-based air defences in Israel has been moved up from 2025. According to Bennett, the system will be put to use "experimentally within a year" and after that – deployed "operationally".
"And this will enable us, as the years advance, to surround Israel with a wall of lasers which will protect us from missiles, rockets, UAVs and other threats", Bennet said.
The prime minister elaborated that the country's south, which more often sees rocket launches from Gaza, will take priority in receiving new interceptors that will complement existing layers of missile defence, among them the much-touted Iron Dome and the David's Sling and Arrow.
Bennett praised the new laser-based technology and said it will give Tel Aviv an edge over enemies that seek its destruction, including Iran, according to the prime minister.
"If we can intercept a missile or rocket with an electrical pulse that costs a few dollars, we will essentially neutralize the ring of fire that Iran has set up. The equation will be overturned - they will invest much, and we little", the prime minister said.
The announcement comes less than a year after Hamas and other Gaza-based groups unleashed rockets at Israel in May 2021 following the killing of Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Tel Aviv's Iron Dome short-range air-defence system reportedly managed to repel most of the hundreds of projectiles said to have been fired at the country.
The intensive two-week conflict significantly reduced Tel Aviv's stockpile of Iron Dome ammunition which saw Israel quickly making significant unplanned purchases of new weapons from the US.