Israel closed 2024 with a record $15 billion in arms export contracts, rising to eighth place among global suppliers, and capped the year by unveiling Iron Beam, a high-energy laser built to swat down rockets, mortars and drones at a fraction of the cost of traditional interceptors.
For a country roughly the size of New Jersey, the combination of wartime innovation and export appetite has turned Israeli kit into a first stop for governments that want systems proven under fire.
European buyers drove the surge, with Germany and Finland among the largest customers, while India, Thailand and Greece placed orders across air defense, missiles and cyber systems. Even Muslim-majority states that recently normalized ties with Jerusalem, including Morocco, the UAE and Bahrain, are purchasing missiles, drones and cybersecurity tools.
Many deals build on the reputation of Israel’s layered defenses, particularly the Iron Dome family that intercepts short-range rockets.
Record sales and who is buying
Israel’s exporters finished 2024 behind Britain but ahead of Turkey and South Korea in the league tables for foreign defense sales. Officials say Europe accounts for the largest slice, reflecting both Russia’s war on Ukraine and NATO members’ drive to rebuild magazines and air defenses.
The rest of the order book is spread across Asia and the Middle East, where buyers want systems that perform in cluttered, real-world environments rather than test ranges.
The attraction is not just hardware. Israeli firms sell doctrine, training and spiral upgrades. Air and missile defense, electronic warfare and unmanned systems top most shopping lists. Governments are responding to a security era where massed drones and rockets can saturate traditional defenses, and where logistics and cost per shot matter as much as raw performance.
Iron Beam’s promise: pennies per shot
The star of the announcement is Iron Beam, a laser interceptor credited with engagements out to roughly 6 miles and a per-shot cost measured in pocket change. “With the laser, the only cost is electricity,” said Yuval Steinitz, chairman of Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which leads the program. “It is like between $1 and $2, less than the price of a hot dog in New York.” By contrast, the missiles that Iron Dome fires can run $100,000 to $1 million per intercept, an asymmetry that favors attackers in a long war of attrition.
A laser is not subject to magazine limits in the same way a launcher is, and it engages at the speed of light.
That means the moment sensors designate an incoming target, a properly cued beam can begin burning through a drone’s airframe or a rocket’s casing. In dense salvos, lowering cost per engagement is as important as hitting a higher percentage of threats.
