Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday that the IDF will begin utilizing a high-end laser-based interception system within a year, despite defense officials previously predicting such a system would not become operational before 2025.
Speaking at the 15th annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies, Bennett said the military will "bring the system into action first experimentally in the south, and later elsewhere in an operational capacity."
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett speaking at the 15th annual conference of the Institute for National Security Studies
(Photo: GPO)
"The system will allow Israel to be surrounded by a laser wall that will protect it from missiles, rockets, drones and other threats."
According to the premier, the new system will eventually replace the highly-reliable Iron Dome air defense system currently utilized in all parts of the country and effectively eliminate the high costs incurred by operating it.
“If we can intercept a missile or rocket with an electric pulse that costs only a few dollars, we will by all accounts neutralize the ring of fire Iran has set up around our borders,” Bennett said.
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Streaks of light are seen as Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile system intercept rockets launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel
(Photo: Reuters)
“This new generation of Israeli air defenses will also serve our friends in the region, who are also exposed to severe threats from Iran and its proxies."
The prime minister also condemned the ongoing aggressions perpetrated by the Islamic Republic and its proxies across the Middle East as Tehran tries to negotiate the revitalization of the tattered 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers in Vienna.
"While the Iranian foreign ministry is sitting in Vienna with world superpowers, Tehran’s Revolutionary Guard is busy acting like the neighborhood bully by attacking the Emirates and elsewhere. That is the definition of negotiations under fire,” he said.
“We will continue to stand up to them in any way, no agreement will bind our hands from acting for our protection."
“The Israeli strategy remains the same in the case of an agreement, which in any case buys very little time, as well as in the event the agreement falls through. In both cases, our campaign continues."