Israel will equip itself with a new laser anti-missile system within a year, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Tuesday.
Speaking at the opening of an annual conference of the National Security Research Center (INSS), Naftali Bennett presented this project
"which will allow in the medium and long term to surround Israel with a laser wall protecting it from missiles, rockets, drones and other threats”.
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The Israeli Defense Ministry announced in June that it had used an airborne laser in a series of tests. This new laser system, installed on board a small civilian plane, makes it possible to target any flying object, including
"drones, shells, rockets, ballistic missiles"
, indicated Yaniv Rotem, director of research and Development at the Israeli Ministry of Defense. This technology, developed by the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli company Elbit Systems, uses the techniques of aerial detection of the army then propels a laser beam of 100 kilowatts in the direction of the target, explained Yaniv Rotem to journalists .
In June, the ministry had estimated that it would be operational within three or four years while Naftali Bennett assured Tuesday that it would be ready
“within a year”.
He explained that the current Iron Dome anti-missile system cost tens of thousands of dollars and that the new technology would save money and strengthen Israel's security.
"With the option of intercepting a missile with just an electrical pulse that costs a few dollars, we can eliminate the Iranian threat on our borders
," said Naftali Bennett.
He also suggested that this technology could serve other countries in the region
"also exposed to serious threats from Iran and its allies".
The Israeli Prime Minister also reiterated his opposition to a possible international agreement on the Iranian nuclear program.
"No agreement will prevent us from defending Israel
," he said.
Israel, considered the only nuclear power in the Middle East, fears that Iran, its sworn enemy, will soon become a
"nuclear threshold"
country , i.e. having enough fissile material to produce the atomic bomb.
