Air Defense: Lasers Aegis And Drones
December 6, 2025: The Aegis Combat Control system has been around since the 1970s, the first ships had it installed for testing. By the 1990s Aegis was the standard radar, fire control system on new ships and installed in many then existing warships. Currently Aegis is used by over 110 warships, Most of them are American, but the Australian, Canadian, German, Japanese, South Korean, Norwegian and Spanish have also adopted it or are in the process of doing so.
One of the recent Aegis enhancements is the ability to direct the use of laser weapons against aircraft, missiles, drones or small boats. American naval weapons development officials are considering the adoption of the Israeli Iron Beam system for use aboard American warships. How soon it will turn into Iron Beam systems installed on American warships is unknown.
Laser systems like Iron Beam were in development elsewhere for a long time, and until Iron Beam no one was able to develop a laser with the range and destructive power to perform like the new Israeli system. This new weapon was already being called Laser Dome until it was decided that calling it Iron Beam was more appropriate. Iron Beam complemented the existing Iron Dome system using missiles and an innovative radar/software system that ignores ballistic, rockets or mortar shells whose trajectory would mean hitting unoccupied land where there will be no injuries or serious damage. Most objects fired at Israel end up landing in unoccupied areas and the few objects that are dangerous are intercepted by missiles. This has proved very effective.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htada/articles/2025120653756.aspx#google_vignette&gsc.tab=0
