JERUSALEM — Israel’s Elbit Systems recently revealed it has received a contract from the Israeli Ministry of Defense to put its high-powered laser system on military aircraft.
Company President and CEO Bezhalel Machlis disclosed the deal, inked in late 2025, on Tuesday during discussion of the company’s 2025 year-end results, which included slides describing a fixed-wing-mounted system called XCalibur and a version for helicopters called Sting.
Machlis described the laser solution as economical in an era of asymmetric warfare, meaning that rather than spending huge amounts on missile air defenses to stop cheap drones, one can spend “cents of electricity” to down threats.
“The advantage of the aerial laser is that it is less affected by humidity, rain, dust, atmospheric conditions the higher you go,” he said. It can operate above the clouds, for instance. It can also strike threats before they arrive because it can see them from the air.
He added that there are many challenges to make a laser for airborne platforms due to the issues of size, cooling and stabilization.
“You need to miniaturize the elements,” Machlis said. “While moving, you need to lock yourself on a target and in a very precise way.”
But he said Elbit has been able to “overcome all these challenges,” and after “advancing with large investment, they will be operational with the air force, and I think there is a big market for this worldwide.”
In an illustrative video shown at the investor conference, Elbit shows an aircraft using a laser to destroy a missile. The laser for the aircraft is shown mounted on a pod underneath the aircraft.
Another scene shows a laser hitting the fuselage of a kamikaze drone similar in type to the Iranian-made Shahed 136, which has been used by Iran and Russia. As Gulf nations attempt to defend against Iranian attacks day-to-day, Machlis said the tactic of using expensive interceptor missiles to take out relatively cheap drones is “unsustainable.”
A third scene shows a laser mounted on a Black Hawk type helicopter, firing from the side door to take down a drone.
“I also want to add that [the] high-power laser is not just a defensive weapon. As you can understand, it has more applications,” Machlis said. He did not elaborate on these other applications.
Israel has been working on laser technology for many years. The Israeli Ministry of Defense said in 2020 that it was seeking to develop a laser system to be mounted on air platforms. Elbit Systems posted a video from the Ministry of Defense that year showing a hypothetical laser on a drone confronting a ballistic missile launch in Lebanon.
Any airborne laser would compliment ground-based versions already in operation in Israel. Rafael’s Iron Beam, developed in part with Elbit, was declared operational in December.
