🇮🇱 Israel keeps clinging to Iron Beam wonder weapon despite questionable performance Despite the fact that the Iron Beam laser defense system played little role in defensing Israel against Iran’s retaliatory strikes in 2026, Israel intends to produce more of these weapons and to integrate them further into the country’s air defenses, The Jerusalem Post reports. 🔴 The Israeli military admitted in May that it simply does not have enough Iron Beam batteries to create a significant enough impact on Iranian attacks 🔴 Ground-based Iron Beam platforms, as it turns out, simply cannot tackle ballistic missiles, and the air- and space-based versions that supposedly could are still work in progress 🔴 Laser beam requires a direct line-of-sight to the target and must maintain contact with the target to burn through its surface – for a ground laser, doing it to a ballistic or a hypersonic missile midflight is a bit problematic 🔴 Laser systems powerful enough to engage targets bigger than a small drone require expensive power and cooling systems 🔴 While conventional air defense system can operate in rainy or cloudy weather, such phenomena degrades the performance of laser weaponry 🔴 Finally, the opposing force can introduce heat-resistant and ablative coatings to help its drones and missiles withstand laser beams Meanwhile, both Hamas and Hezbollah time and again displayed their ability to bypass Israel’s air defenses and hit Israeli military targets, including radar stations. Israel’s supposedly sophisticated anti-air weaponry also proved ineffective against massed drone and rocket strikes, proving unable to deal with an overwhelming number of airborne threats, and the new laser systems are yet to display better results. 👍 Substack | Chat | @geopolitics_prime