Long gone are the days when Israel it had no way of responding to the firing of rockets and missiles coming from neighboring countries where various terrorist organizations are based. However, in the face of technological progress that multiplies and diversifies threats, the country was forced to make its protection system more sophisticated.
This is why, a few days ago, the prime minister of Israel, Naftali Bennett, announced an ambitious defensive system that works with a high-power laser beam and that shields the country from various external threats. In addition, Bennett set a goal of being deployed “within a year.”
As a keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the Institute for National Security Studies, Bennett stressed, “This will allow us, as the years go on, to surround Israel with laser walls that protect us from missiles, rockets, drones and other threats.”
Although this type of technology was revealed by the Israeli Ministry of Defense last year, its entry into operation it accelerated. And now, it is known that it is an advanced laser system that will allow to destroy in flight devices unpiloted, mortars, rockets, Grad missiles fired up to 40 km. and drones that are on their way to attack Israel. (Also read: They denounce a new Israeli air attack against the port of Latakia, in Syria)
The system key is a laser beam that targets identified threats, intercepts them, quickly heats them to high temperatures, and thus destroys them in the air.
Retired General Yitzhak Ben Israel, director of the Israel Space Agency in the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that “in reality this may not take less than three or four years to be a reality, but it is likely that in one or two is the experimental model”.
In an interview with local media, Ben recalled that in Israel a special approach is used for the development of this type of system, which he called “the telescopic method” and which consists in the fact that the prototype is not definitively finished in the factory but rather when it enters the experimental phase, it is placed in the area where it will be used to intercept rockets, so that it is optimized as it goes.
“That’s how it was done with the Iron Dome,” the expert recalled, mentioning the most effective system Israel has to intercept rockets fired from close range and low, and which manages to intercept at least 90 percent of the rockets without this system. they would fall on the population. (You may also be interested in: North Korea launches its most powerful missile since 2017
The system anti missile laser It will be one more piece in a unique defensive system developed by Israel, unique in the world, made up of several protective layers, which are put into operation according to the distance and height of the punctual attack.
There are also anti-missile systems designed to intercept long-range threats. Missiles that arrive from far away, thousands of kilometers away, and that will first encounter the Jetz (Arrow), which operates outside the atmosphere.
Then, if that doesn’t work, act the jetz 2 and finally the system called in Hebrew Kéla David (David’s Slingshot). There is also the system known as yahalomoriginally called Patriot, which are batteries that operate against aircraft and drones used as an attack.
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The challenges of the new system
The development of the new protective system is in charge of the Administration of Arms Development and Technological Infrastructure of Israel (Mafat, for its acronym in Hebrew). Brigadier General Yaniv Rotem, who heads it, said two years ago when the technology was revealed, that like everything else, the laser also has advantages and disadvantages.
Each platform will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop itself, but firing the laser itself would cost as little as one dollar. This means that it would be much cheaper in the long run than, for example, the use of the protective system iron dome.
The missiles that the Dome fires upon identifying a rocket that is on its way to an inhabited area in Israel they cost between 80 and 100,000 dollars each. While the new system is estimated to cost approximately 30 million dollars. But, each shot, it would cost only a few dollars.
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“We can shoot down with the laser only what we see”
Another advantage is that the new system will never run out of ammunition, unless there is a problem with the electricity, which is what allows it to work. For its part, the Iron Dome has a limited amount.
On the other hand, the disadvantage is that the system under development does not work well when the visibility is not good, be it due to clouds or other problems, as stated by Yaniv Rotem.
This is also highlighted by the expert Uzi Rubin, now retired, considered one of the main connoisseurs of Israel’s missiles. “If it’s cloudy, it doesn’t work,” he told EL TIEMPO.
“I think the prime minister exaggerated in his presentation,” Rubin tells this newspaper. “The laser system will not save IsraelIt will help, yes, but it won’t change all the rules of the game.” And he clarifies: “the prime minister presented it as the key solution to the problem of the missiles that threaten Israel, as if by having it, we could already be completely calm, but it is not like that. There is no magic weapon that does everything, that is always absolutely successful. They all have some limitation.
(It may be of interest to you: They denounce a new Israeli air attack against the port of Latakia, in Syria
Rubin points out that among the main drawbacks of the new system is that it “intercepts slowly.” “The laser travels at the speed of light, but it takes a few seconds to heat up each time. And also it cannot intercept several missiles at the same time but each one separately”, explains the expert.
This would be a huge drawback, given that the terrorists who have attacked Israel with rockets, they have always done it with multiple simultaneous salvos, and that it is a model that they have been continually sophisticating.
Israel’s Guardian of the Walls operation against Hamas in Gaza, triggered by the firing of rockets from Gaza towards Jerusalem in May 2021, was an example of this: in just over 10 days, launched more than 4,000 rockets into Israeli territory.
Several fronts at the same time
The need to continually improve Israel’s defense mechanisms is clear given the multiple challenges it faces both on its borders and from a more distant but dangerous neighbor: the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The regime of the Ayatollahs in Iran openly proclaims its desire to destroy Israel. And not only is it seeking nuclear power, but it is also developing ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
However, also without them they constitute a high danger. Be that as it may, Iran currently has missiles capable of reaching Israeli territory: the Shehab-3 and the Khoramshar 2.
And to the south, in the Gaza Stripthe Islamists of Hamas, who have governed this territory for almost 15 years, and also receive help from Iran, continue to dedicate great efforts to the development of their arsenal of rockets, which since 2001 they have been launching towards Israel.
Until now, in the last 20 years, approximately 25,000 rockets and mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory.
Due to the multiplication and sophistication of threats, it is likely that the laser system it will not be the last that Israel develops to protect its territory from neighboring threats.
JANA BERIS
TIME CORRESPONDENT
JERUSALEM
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