Israel will have laser to shoot down rockets within a year - Bennett

Israel will surround itself with a defensive “laser wall,” with new missile interception technology to be ready within a year, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced in a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

The IDF will begin using the laser interception system in the next year, first experimentally and later operationally, starting in the South.

“This will allow us, in the medium to long term, to surround Israel with a laser wall that will defend us from missiles, rockets, UAVs and other threats that will essentially take away the strongest card our enemies have against us,” Bennett said.

Bennett explained that today, a terrorist in Gaza can launch a rocket into Israel that costs hundreds of dollars to make, while the Iron Dome battery shooting down the rocket costs tens of thousands of dollars.

“This equation doesn’t make sense,” the prime minister stated. “It allows [the terrorists] to launch more and more Kassams and for us to shed many millions on a ‘lightning strike’ and billions during a campaign. We decided to break the equation, and it will be broken in only a few years.”