On April 7, 2011, at 6:20 p.m., the word “Alpha” was heard over the operational radio network — the code signaling a successful interception. Iron Dome, which had entered service only shortly before, intercepted a Grad rocket fired from the Gaza Strip over the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
It was the system’s first operational interception. Fifteen years later, it is difficult to imagine Israel’s home front without it. But that evening, it was still unclear whether a technology developed in just about 2½ years could withstand thousands of rockets over the long term.
Rafael Iron Dome System
(Yaron Sharon)
Iron Dome was born out of the need to confront a threat that had become an increasingly persistent part of life in Israel: short-range rockets fired at towns and cities. The challenge was not merely to hit a rocket traveling at high speed through the air, but to build a system capable of handling barrages, deciding within seconds which threats posed a genuine danger and repeating that process again and again. The project began in 2007, and within an unusually short period, the system progressed from development and testing to operational service.
Developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Iron Dome operates through a combination of radar, a command-and-control system and interceptor missiles. The radar detects a launch, and within seconds the system calculates the rocket’s trajectory and expected impact point. An interceptor is launched only if the rocket is projected to strike a protected area.
That ability — distinguishing between a threat that must be destroyed and a rocket expected to land in an open area — is central to the system’s effectiveness because it allows interceptors to be reserved for threats to people and infrastructure.
Since 2011, Rafael engineers have repeatedly upgraded the system. Iron Dome, originally designed primarily to counter short-range rockets and mortar shells, can now confront additional threats, including drones and cruise missiles.
The family has also expanded to include C-Dome, the naval version of the system, which is installed aboard the Israeli Navy’s Sa’ar 6-class corvettes and carried out its first operational interception in April 2024.
Meanwhile, Iron Dome has accumulated operational experience on an enormous scale, surpassing 10,000 interceptions and becoming a central layer of Israel’s multilayered air defense network.
Iron Beam
(Photo: Courtesy of RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems)
Over the years, the name “Iron Dome” has also moved beyond the defense world. It has become a common expression for protective mechanisms in other fields, entered public discourse and even appeared in television series, movies and music. In that sense, few weapons systems have become concepts understood almost without explanation.
But even a system that has become a symbol does not operate alone. As threats change and multiply, the defense network surrounding it continues to evolve and add new layers. That is where Rafael’s laser system enters the picture. Known for years in Israel as “Magen Or,” or “Light Shield,” its current operational name is “Or Eitan,” or Iron Beam.
Instead of launching a missile at a target, Iron Beam focuses a high-powered laser beam on it, tracks it with high precision and heats a critical point for several seconds until the target is disabled. Adaptive optics technology developed by four Rafael scientists helps correct in real time for distortions caused by the atmosphere and concentrate the energy where it is needed.
The technology was tested in stages. As early as 2022, an Israeli laser demonstrator successfully intercepted rockets, mortar shells, drones and anti-tank missiles. In 2025, a series of tests of the operational configuration against a range of targets was completed, and the first system was delivered to the Israeli military in December.
Iron Beam in action
(Photo: Spokesperson and Public Relations Division at the Defense Ministry)
By June 2026, scenarios had been tested in which Iron Beam and Iron Dome operated through the same battle-management system, allowing operators to choose in real time the appropriate means of interception — a missile or a laser beam — according to the threat and conditions.
Iron Beam is one system within Rafael’s broader family of laser defense systems, which also includes smaller, lower-powered systems designed for tactical use. Rafael’s laser systems successfully intercepted dozens of aerial threats fired at Israel during the war, becoming the first systems of their kind in the world to demonstrate such a capability in combat.
Iron Beam is now being integrated into the Israeli military after delivery of the first system and its incorporation into the country’s air defense network. It is not intended to replace Iron Dome, but to add another layer to Israel’s multilayered defenses and, for the first time, provide a choice between an interceptor missile and directed energy to neutralize the same threat.
Fifteen years after its first operational interception, Iron Dome is a far different system from the one that entered service in 2011. It has evolved alongside the threats it was built to counter, expanding and undergoing repeated upgrades. Now it is gaining another layer alongside it.
Iron Beam adds a new capability to Israel’s defenses, but Iron Dome remains at their center — the system that changed the way Israel protects its home front.
