Israeli and US Navy lasers successfully shoot down drones, rockets, artillery

“It may sound like science fiction, but it’s real.”

Thus tweeted Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennet, accompanied by a highly-produced video of Israel’s new laser-based air defense system, the “Iron Beam,” destroying incoming ordinance in the Negev Desert.

The successful testing of the device joins a recently announced US Navy test of a similar weapons platform called Layered Laser Defense (LLD). LLD was tested at the High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, as laser air defense systems begin to move from concept to action.

“Innovative laser systems like the LLD have…