The Iron Beam laser defense system was used less in the 2026 war with Iran because the military needs 14 batteries to have a significant enough impact, the Israeli Air Force said on Friday.
Previously on March 12, the IDF had acknowledged that it was not using the Iron Beam laser for regular use during the ongoing Iran war.
This admission came despite the fact that various forms of Iron Beam were used to shoot down around 40 Hezbollah drones in fall 2024
Also, this admission came despite the fact that the Defense Ministry in December 2025 announced that Iron Beam has been rolled out in the field.
At the time the IDF did not explain the discrepancy between its past use and the many announcements about Iron Beam's readiness to much fanfare versus the statement that it is not being used in the current war and is not mature enough to be fully used.
Rafael at the time refused to comment on any problems that Iron beam might be encountering, and referred questions to the Defense Ministry.
The Defense Ministry did not explain the discrepancy.
But the air force clarified the issue on Friday regarding the need for building a sufficient volume of platforms.
Already in June 2025, the ministry and Rafael, the lead company of multiple defense tech companies involved including Elbit and others, had announced that Lite Beam, a smaller relative of Iron Beam, was operational.
In mid-September 2025, the Defense Ministry announced that Iron Beam was operational and that a full series of batteries would be fanning out across the country to provide cutting-edge new air defense capabilities within the coming months.
Iron Beam expected to reduce cost of air defense
Back in June 2025, the ministry already disclosed that Israeli laser defense systems had shot down around 40 Hezbollah drones in October 2024.
If and when it is ready for real, Iron Beam has more power, a longer range, and can be used to defend against a wide array of threats as compared to Lite Beam, a shorter range version of the system.
Second, Iron Beam, if and when it is ready, can specifically shoot down not only drones, but also missiles, rockets, and mortars, making it far more formidable than if it was only capable of shooting down drones, a relatively slow- moving threat.
In 2025, the ministry and the IDF said they had expected Iron Beam to immediately start reducing the cost of shooting down aerial threats, an issue which has been out of control for Israel during this war in which tens of thousands of threats have been launched through the air at Israel on six fronts.
Firing Arrow interceptors can cost millions of shekels, Iron Dome interceptors can cost tens of thousands of shekels, but firing the Iron Beam is as cheap as turning a light on.
Some sources have said that any move for Iron Beam to truly move ahead of Iron Dome as the lead short range air defense could still take a number of years.
Using lasers to defend against long range threats, such as Iran's ballistic missiles could take that much longer, some projecting 5-10 years, or longer.