At the Eurosatory 2026 arms exhibition in France, Elbit Systems unveiled a demonstrator for a high-power airborne laser system designed for helicopters. The detachable pod is intended to give attack helicopters a future way to intercept aerial threats such as drones and cruise missiles, and possibly strike ground targets with a focused laser beam. The project is being developed together with Israel’s Ministry of Defense, although no schedule or budget has been disclosed. The company expects the helicopter version to mature before a planned laser system for fighter jets.
Elbit already supplies the laser for the ground-based Iron Beam system with Rafael, but airborne laser weapons are far rarer. Elbit is said to be one of only a very small number of companies in the field worldwide, alongside Lockheed Martin. Unlike earlier American efforts such as the ABL program, which tried and failed to mount a powerful laser on a Boeing 747, Israel has already demonstrated an initial operational feasibility for airborne laser use.
The system relies on fiber-laser technology, in which many smaller laser units are combined into one concentrated beam. According to Oded Ben David, Elbit’s vice president of technology at Elop, each unit is above 1,000 watts and can be scaled by combining many amplifiers. He said the key challenge is shrinking the system so it can fly, while also handling target tracking, beam stabilization, cooling, and heat management. The pod shown in Paris included the laser module, guidance unit, cooling, batteries, and a laser-steering head using mirrors.
Ben David said airborne lasers have an important advantage because they operate above most of the turbulent lower atmosphere. “When you are on the ground, you suffer a lot from turbulence. Once you go up into the sky, life is much better,” he said. The main military need is to break the cost imbalance between cheap drones and expensive interceptors. “We have to break the crazy economic equation,” he said. Elbit previously demonstrated airborne laser capability in 2021, when a laser mounted on a light Cessna shot down several drones over the Mediterranean. The current effort is now moving from proof of concept to a helicopter demonstrator and, later, a combat system.
