Israel Lasers in on Iranian Drone Threat as Biden Visits

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and US President Joe Biden attend a briefing on the Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam Air Defense Systems at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and US President Joe Biden attend a briefing on the Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam Air Defense Systems at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2022. (Reuters)
TT
20

Israel Lasers in on Iranian Drone Threat as Biden Visits

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and US President Joe Biden attend a briefing on the Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam Air Defense Systems at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2022. (Reuters)
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and US President Joe Biden attend a briefing on the Israel's Iron Dome and Iron Beam Air Defense Systems at the Ben Gurion International Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel, July 13, 2022. (Reuters)

Moments after US President Joe Biden touched down in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, the Israeli military showed him new hardware it says is essential to confronting Iran: anti-drone lasers.

While Israel has long been known for its efforts to thwart Tehran's nuclear ambitions, Israeli officials have increasingly been sounding the alarm over Iran's fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Earlier this month, the Israeli military said it had intercepted four unarmed drones headed for an offshore gas rig, claiming they were Iranian-made and launched by the Tehran-backed Lebanese party Hezbollah.

As concerns mount over drone warfare, Israel hopes the new "Iron Beam" system will secure its skies.

While not yet operational, the military hardware was described as a "game-changer" in April by then-prime minister Naftali Bennett.

On Wednesday, the Israeli army showed Biden footage of drones being intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system already in place, and the Iron Beam system which uses laser technology.

"It (Iron Beam) will be operational in very few years, it will be on the ground, integrated with Iron Dome," Daniel Gold, head of research at Israel's defense ministry, told AFP.

He said the two systems will "complement each other".

"They will work together, the brain of Iron Dome -- the command and control -- will decide in real time who is going to shoot -- the laser or the missile," he said.

Presenting such technology to Biden is a strategic move for Israel, which saw Washington approve a billion-dollar package in September for the Iron Dome system.

Low-cost warfare

Iron Dome has been used countless times to intercept rockets fired by militants from the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Iran's ally Hamas.

The defense system costs roughly $50,000 per launch, while Bennett priced the Iron Beam at $3.50 per deployment.

He said the new defense system was "silent" and could "intercept incoming UAVs, mortars, rockets and anti-tank missiles".

Uzi Rubin, a former Israeli defense ministry specialist in anti-missile systems, said intercepting drones was a significant challenge.

"The laser technology will have more capacity against drones than rockets and missiles," said Rubin, who is based at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security.

"It is going to help if we get some American financing" for the Iron Beam, he added.

Integrating Israel into region

For Israel, a priority of Biden's Middle East tour is broadening US-backed security cooperation among regional countries with shared hostility towards Iran.

The US president will fly Friday to Saudi Arabia, following meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Saudi Arabia and its neighbor the United Arab Emirates have both come under drone attack by Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi militias since 2019.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month that senior Israeli and US military officials had visited Egypt to discuss Iranian drones.

Upon arriving in Israel on Wednesday, Biden said "we'll continue to advance Israel's integration into the region".

'Significant platform'

According to Eyal Pinko, a former Israeli navy intelligence officer, Israel has been anticipating the rising threat of drones from Iran and its regional proxies.

"Since 2009, there was an understanding among Israeli naval intelligence that Hezbollah's UAVs would be a threat to Israeli rigs," said Pinko, a specialist at Tel Aviv's Bar-Ilan University.

"Iran understood many years ago that drones were force multipliers, a significant platform and relatively cheap," he told AFP.

The Israeli military has said that it had intercepted in March 2021 two Iranian drones laden with weapons for Gaza fighters.

On Monday, the White House revealed intelligence that Tehran was "preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs... on an expedited timeline" for use in the war in Ukraine.

While Israel aims to counter Iranian UAVs with new technology and regional alliances, it may also be going on the offensive.

In March, Israeli media said the army had launched an attack on an Iranian site storing dozens of armed drones.

But weeks later, Iranian state television broadcast footage of a facility hidden in the mountains: an underground base for scores of military UAVs.



Israel's Netanyahu Ends Hungary Visit, Heads to US

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks after he took over the certificate of Honorary Citizen of the University (Civis Universitatis Honoris Causa) from Rector of the Ludovika University of Public Service at the university in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Tibor Illyes/MTI via AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks after he took over the certificate of Honorary Citizen of the University (Civis Universitatis Honoris Causa) from Rector of the Ludovika University of Public Service at the university in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Tibor Illyes/MTI via AP)
TT
20

Israel's Netanyahu Ends Hungary Visit, Heads to US

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks after he took over the certificate of Honorary Citizen of the University (Civis Universitatis Honoris Causa) from Rector of the Ludovika University of Public Service at the university in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Tibor Illyes/MTI via AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks after he took over the certificate of Honorary Citizen of the University (Civis Universitatis Honoris Causa) from Rector of the Ludovika University of Public Service at the university in Budapest, Hungary, Friday, April 4, 2025. (Tibor Illyes/MTI via AP)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left Budapest on Sunday to head to the US to talk tariffs and Iran with President Donald Trump after wrapping up a multi-day-visit to Hungary.

Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban hosted his long-standing Israeli ally in Hungary this week, despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant.

Netanyahu's visit came as Hungary announced its withdrawal from the tribunal.

"I have just concluded a very important visit to Hungary," Netanyahu said in a statement adding that cooperation in the production of munitions among other issues was discussed.

Netanyahu is headed straight to the United States, where he is set to discuss tariffs, Iran and the ICC, among other thorny issues with US President Donald Trump on Monday.

The Israeli leader arrived in the Hungarian capital early on Thursday.

Both Orban and Netanyahu slammed the ICC at a joint press conference, with the Israeli premier expressing hope that Hungary "would not be the last state" to exit the "corrupt organization".

The ICC last year issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu over allegations of crimes against humanity and war crimes -- including starvation as a method of warfare -- in Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

The war was sparked by the Palestinian group's attack against Israel on October 7, 2023.

Orban defended the government's decision not to execute the ICC warrant against Netanyahu in his weekly radio interview, saying that it is "not customary to arrest guests" in Hungary and there was no will to do so since Israel is regarded as a "friend".

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock criticized the decision, calling it a "bad day" for international criminal law.

But Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said he didn't think his country or any other European state would have arrested the Israeli leader. The visit to Hungary marked Netanyahu's first trip to Europe since 2023.

During his four-day visit, Netanyahu met Jewish community leaders, visited a Holocaust memorial on the bank of the Danube river and was awarded an honorary degree from a university.

Hungarian police said Saturday it had detained two Frenchmen on suspicion of hooliganism and vandalism after they allegedly tore down and damaged Israeli flags at the Szechenyi chain bridge.

Netanyahu and Orban also had a call with Trump about Hungary's decision to exit the ICC.

Israel had attempted to duck the US tariffs imposed on nearly every country by moving preemptively Tuesday -- a day before Trump's big global tariff announcement -- to drop all remaining duties on the one percent of American goods still affected by them.

But Trump moved ahead with the tariffs, saying the United States had a significant trade deficit with its ally and top beneficiary of military aid.