From Israel's Ynet News, November 28:
Within weeks, Israel will field its first operational high-powered laser batteries, adding a cheap, rapid answer to drones, UAVs and rockets; developed in deep secrecy at Rafael, Iron Beam promises to transform air defense and slash interception costs
The Shahed 101 is one particularly wicked piece of Iranian UAV hardware. It is 1.60 meters long, has a two meter wingspan and a carbon fiber body that makes it very hard to detect on radar. It is launched from Lebanon, slices through the sky in a chilling silence thanks to its electric motor, flies very far, up to 800 kilometers, and very low, almost brushing the treetops. In its belly it carries a cruel bomb weighing about eight kilograms. When it reaches its target, the Shahed 101 glides straight into it and explodes on contact with its shrapnel warhead, whose only purpose is to kill as many people as possible at once. It is a flying death machine, efficient and cheap, developed by Revolutionary Guards scientists with one central goal in mind: to hit as many Israeli soldiers as possible.
And indeed, soldiers serving on the northern border learned to recognize the Shahed 101’s spine chilling buzz, and also understood that there was no truly effective answer to this weapon. From the ground it is very hard to bring down, and by the time a helicopter or fighter jet manages to identify it, chase it and shoot it down, long minutes pass, sometimes deadly ones. What is left? Take cover well and hope it passes. Sometimes that does not help either. The Shahed 101 hit many communities in the north. In an attack on Kabri, for example, a reserve soldier was killed. There were also attacks in Eilat, in the Jordan Valley and elsewhere. Other UAV attacks took dozens more lives. At the Golani Brigade basic training base near Ramat Menashe, one UAV, as remembered, even made it from Lebanon to the prime minister’s home in Caesarea. Another came from Yemen and struck a building near the U.S. Embassy, killing a man. If against the rocket array the defensive layer provided by Iron Dome and Arrow performed impressively, with 90 percent to 95 percent interception rates, against drones and UAVs the numbers were far lower. Only about 50 percent were shot down in time.But a little more than a year ago, that balance of terror was broken. It was in the evening hours when soldiers of the Dragon Battalion (946) in the north spotted a threat hovering over their sector. Dragon is a tactical battalion belonging to the Air Defense Array, reestablished after nearly 20 years since the previous battalion with the same name was disbanded. That night, the moment they had been waiting for finally arrived. Inside the battery’s operations trailer they tracked the target tensely. Then came the alert, then the lock. And then came the launch.
When the system was activated, no roar of a Tamir interceptor missile was heard outside. There was no terrifying boom of an Arrow launch either. In fact, aside from the soldiers’ strained breathing inside the trailer and the radio calls, there was no unusual sound. At first, nothing could be seen. But those minutes will enter history as the time of the first operational launch of an Israeli laser weapon....
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