Israel is accelerating the roll-out of laser-based interceptors as part of a plan to surround itself with such technologies and reduce the high costs currently incurred when shooting down aerial threats, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday.
But Bennett announced a dramatically shortened timeline. "Within a year already the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will bring into action a laser-based interception system, first experimentally, and later operationally, first in the south, then in other places," he said in a speech.
"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," he told Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies.
Bennett was speaking about Israel's efforts to counter what it sees as Iranian efforts to encircle it with guerrillas capable of paralyzing its infrastructure with relatively inexpensive barrages.
The laser system would be an addition to Israel's current air defences based on Iron Dome, David's Sling and Arrow - systems that launch interceptor missiles costing tens of thousands of dollars to millions of dollars each.
