Why not use Iron Beam directed energy weapons as a means to protect Israel's ground borders? ~ Elder Of Ziyon

Sunday, February 02, 2025

Why not use Iron Beam directed energy weapons as a means to protect Israel's ground borders?

Last week, Israel's Rafael Systems announced that the Iron Beam directed energy system will be deployed this year as an additional tool to combat missiles, rockets and drones aimed at Israel. It will truly be a game changer in countering threats from short range missiles.

National Defense adds details about the system that do not seem to have been previously reported.

Rafael chairman Yuval Steinitz said Iron Beam is a groundbreaking technological achievement, solving a challenge that had long hindered laser weapon development—atmospheric dispersion. Traditional high-energy lasers lose effectiveness as air density scatters their beams, but Iron Beam overcomes this by firing hundreds of small, coin-sized beams instead of a single large one. While individually weak, these beams collectively focus on a target, using a telescopic feedback system to lock onto a vulnerable spot and continuously increase energy until the target is disabled. Integrated with Iron Dome’s advanced algorithms, this system ensures precise targeting at the speed of light. Already tested at ranges of tens of kilometers, Iron Beam is expected to improve further, offering a highly effective defense against missiles and drones.

I haven't seen anyone discuss this, but why not use a similar system to defend against ground-based threats?

If Iron Beam can be programmed to identify and hit missiles flying at 5,000 kilometers an hour, it should be relatively simple to adapt it to stop any Hamas or Hezbollah attempts to infiltrate Israel above ground. Tracking, hitting and disabling people or SUVs is much easier than for a rocket - they are moving far slower. Also, the amount of energy needed to disable people or Jeeps would be much less, which should make it possible to stop threats from longer distances than the 10 or so kilometer range of Iron Beam for rockets. The systems would just need to be deployed on an elevated platform to be able to destroy threats from kilometers away at the speed of light.

The potential uses for a directed energy system don't end at Hamas or Hezbollah Radwan forces style attacks. Iron Beam can be used to disable - and potentially destroy - tanks as well.

Tanks have weak spots. Their optics and sensor systems can be targeted to blind the crew's ability to see where they are going. The tracks could be hit to immobilize the tank. And if the tank's rear is exposed, the ammunition and fuel tanks there are usually lightly protected and a hit can explode it and destroy the tank altogether.

A beam moves at the speed of light and is far more accurate than any projectile could possibly be, so even the smallest weak spot of a tank could be aimed at and hit accurately, even in the better protected front. One obvious target would be the gun barrel itself, which is not as well protected as most of the tank, and it just needs to be heated up enough to be deformed, which would make the tank ineffective as a weapon. (In extreme cases, a tank round that is meant to be fired could explode within the warped barrel itself, which could injure or kill the crew.)

Perhaps Iron Beam could also be modified to add the ability to fire at other light frequencies as well, such as microwaves, which could fry electronics systems and disable any modern threat from miles away.

Other issues would need to be addressed, not least that a ground-to-ground Iron Beam itself would be a target for attacks and need to be defended and deployed appropriately. It would need a reliable and permanent power supply. It has weak spots, too. But I see no reason directed energy weapons cannot be adapted, in a few years time, to defend Israel's borders more effectively and with lower cost that ever before.