The Iron Beam, Israel’s first high-energy laser interceptor, has completed development and testing and will be handed to the IDF on December 30. The announcement came from Brig. Gen. (res.) Dr. Daniel Gold, head of the Defense Ministry’s Directorate for Defense Research and Development, who told the DefenseTech Week conference in Tel Aviv that the system is ready for its first operational capability. His message was delivered without qualifiers: the system works, the tests proved it, and the IDF will receive it within weeks.
This marks the most significant upgrade to Israel’s air-defense array since the introduction of Iron Dome. It arrives after a year in which Israeli communities from the Golan to Eilat absorbed wave after wave of drone attacks, including Iranian Shahed-101 UAVs that slipped through the existing layers. Even when helicopters or fighter jets managed to intercept them, they did so too late, and too often at the cost of lives. The IDF revived its 946th Air Defense Battalion to confront this threat, deploying an earlier, lower-powered laser to shoot down dozens of drones during the fighting in the north. The Iron Beam is in another league.
The Iron Beam is a 100-kilowatt-class high-energy laser developed over more than a decade by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems together with the DDR&D. It hits targets from hundreds of meters to several kilometers away, engages at the speed of light, and—most importantly in a long war—has no practical limit on ammunition as long as it remains powered. Dr. Gold said the system will “change the rules of the battlefield,” replacing expensive interceptor missiles with shots that cost only a few shekels. Rafael is already developing upgraded versions, including the Iron Beam 450 and the Iron Beam M, a mobile truck-mounted variant for front-line forces.
The system has been renamed from Magen Or (Light Shield) to Or Eitan (Eitan’s Light) in honor of Cpt. Eitan Oster of the Egoz Commando Unit, who was killed fighting the Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon in October 2024. His father, a senior engineer in the DDR&D, was involved in the early stages of the project.
Dr. Gold said Israel’s defense sector is undergoing a revolution. Startups are now winning DDR&D tenders against the most prominent companies and supplying attack drone systems to the IDF. Brig. Gen. Benny Aminov announced a breakthrough in detecting and intercepting enemy drones, including swarm scenarios that only directed-energy systems can counter quickly enough. The Defense Ministry’s long-term plan involves new offensive and defensive technologies in space, electronic warfare, and artificial intelligence.
These changes align with the IDF’s sweeping reorganization announced this week. Under a new structure called Bina (“intelligence”), the military is consolidating its computing, AI, and communications units, forming the Artificial Intelligence Division and the Spectrum Division while reorganizing satellite warfare under the ICT Division. Two of the five senior positions in these new divisions are held by women, including Brig. Gen. Yael Grossman and Brig. Gen. Racheli Dembinsky.
The backdrop to these reforms is a year of relentless drone attacks that exposed gaps even in Israel’s highly regarded air-defense network. While Iron Dome and Arrow systems intercepted 90–95 percent of rockets and ballistic threats, only about half of hostile UAVs were downed in time. From the Shahed strike in Kabri that killed a reservist, to the UAV that reached Caesarea, to the drone launched from Yemen that struck near the U.S. Embassy, the threat was unmistakable and immediate. Iron Beam was designed for moments like these.
Israel has always been forced to innovate in the face of enemies who learn, adapt, and escalate. The Iron Beam does more than cut costs or improve intercept rates. It represents Israel’s refusal to accept vulnerability as a permanent condition. It is a deliberate answer to a year of drones buzzing over farms in the Galilee and streets in Eilat, a year when civilians listened for the whine of a Shahed and prayed it would miss them.
