The “Death Ray” is on the horizon ?

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The impressive success of the Rafael “Iron Dome” rocket interceptor, has not caused many people in Israel and other countries , that dream about a laser based defence system against rockets to neglect this dream.

As a matter of fact there are two groups that have contradicted opinions.

Dreams are a legitimate thing, but when they clash with harsh reality, they remain dreams .

This has been a real war between two totally opposed approaches – one that said that only a laser gun can do the job, and the other that wanted an interceptor. The rest is history. Even after the recent announcement of Lockheed Martin about a successful demonstration of a portable, ground-based military laser system in a series of tests against representative airborne targets, the chances that Israel will invest in such a system, are slim.

Lockheed Martin developed the Area Defense Anti-Munitions (ADAM) system to provide a defence against short-range threats, such as rockets and unmanned aerial systems.

Since the mid of 2014 , the ADAM system has successfully engaged an unmanned aerial system target in flight at a range of approximately 1.5 kilometers (0.9 miles) and has destroyed four small-caliber rocket targets in simulated flight at a range of approximately 2 kilometers (1.2 miles).

Designed for short-range defense of high-value areas including forward operating bases, the ADAM system’s 10-kilowatt fiber laser is engineered to destroy targets up to 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) away. The system precisely tracks targets in cluttered optical environments and has a tracking range of more than 5 kilometers (3.1 miles). The system has been designed to be flexible enough to operate against rockets as a standalone system and to engage unmanned aerial systems with an external radar cue. The ADAM system’s modular architecture combines commercial hardware components with the company’s proprietary software in an integrated and easy-to-operate system.

While tests with the new laser system continue, not only by Lockheed Martin but also by Boeing and other companies , the operational use looks very remote.

There is no doubt that Laser will become a very effective weapons and defence systems but for now projectiles are the answer.