Latest news with #Rotem
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Israel's Iron Beam Laser Air Defense System Has Downed Enemy Drones
Israel has used a new air defense laser to shoot down Hezbollah drones in the current conflict in the Middle East, it has been confirmed. What is described as an adapted version of the Iron Beam system made its combat debut last October, and the definitive version should be fielded by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) later this year, joining an already formidable, layered air defense network, something you can read about in more detail here. The use of the Iron Beam — also known by its Hebrew name Magen Or — was announced by the IDF, Israeli Air Force (IAF), and defense contractor Rafael, in a joint statement. These three organizations, it is said, 'executed an accelerated development program to deploy revolutionary interception systems,' as part of an effort that also involved Israel's Directorate of Defense Research and Development. A World First — Combat-Proven Laser Defense, Powered by RafaelFor the first time in history, high-power laser systems have been used to intercept aerial threats in unprecedented breakthrough took place during the Swords of Iron War — with Rafael's advanced… — Rafael Advanced Defense Systems (@RAFAELdefense) May 28, 2025 The crash program saw the Iron Beam fielded by the IAF Aerial Defense Array, which used prototypes of the high-power laser to successfully intercept 'scores of enemy threats.' Israeli media outlets described the Iron Beam as initially deployed as a 'scaled-down version' of the definitive system, but provided no further details of how it differed or how the batteries were set up. In its definitive form, Iron Beam is trailer-mounted and uses a directed-energy weapon to destroy targets, including rockets, mortars, and drones. In the past, reports described the system as firing 'an electric 100-150 kW solid-state laser that will be capable of intercepting rockets and missiles.' In April 2022, IDF Brig. Gen. Yaniv Rotem said that the Iron Beam had been tested at 'challenging' ranges and timings,' according to the Times of Israel. 'The use of a laser is a 'game changer' and the technology is simple to operate and proves to be economically viable,' Rotem added. That particular test included the 'interception of shrapnel, rockets, anti-tank missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles, in a variety of complex scenarios,' according to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. 'Israel is one of the first countries in the world to succeed in developing powerful laser technology in operational standards and demonstrate interception in an operational scenario,' the ministry added. At the same time, the IDF posted a 103-second video online, showcasing what it claimed was the system locking on and destroying rockets, mortars, and a drone. In general, developing and fielding a practical air defense laser has long been a challenge for many different countries, but for Israel, the benefits of such a system are especially obvious. For years now, the IDF has faced the threat of large-scale barrage-type attacks by one or more of its adversaries, including significant numbers of relatively low-cost rockets, artillery shells, and mortar rounds. Until now, defense against attacks of this kind has been entrusted to the Iron Dome system, which was developed specifically to counter small and fast-flying targets. Multiple accounts testify to the effectiveness of Iron Dome, although this comes at considerable expense, since it burns through a significant quantity of Tamir missile interceptors. Larger barrage attacks risk exhausting the stocks of Tamir interceptors altogether, at least in the short term. In contrast, Iron Beam can engage many targets at a drastically reduced cost. In April 2022, Israel's then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stated that Iron Beam was able to shoot down targets at a cost of $3.50 per shot. Israel has successfully tested the new 'Iron Beam' laser interception is the world's first energy-based weapons system that uses a laser to shoot down incoming UAVs, rockets & mortars at a cost of $3.50 per may sound like science fiction, but it's real. — Naftali Bennett נפתלי בנט (@naftalibennett) April 14, 2022 More recent reports put the cost of a single Iron Beam shot close to $2.50. Regardless, this is a huge difference compared to the roughly $50,000 price tag — which is among the lowest estimates — for a single Tamir interceptor missile. Even before the latest conflict in the Middle East, Israel was accelerating its plans to deploy Iron Beam, which was originally expected to go online in 2024. A key driver behind this was the worry that interceptor missiles for the Iron Dome and other systems could be exhausted in a more intense, longer-lasting campaign. Prior to the latest hostilities, it was assessed that Hezbollah had an arsenal of around 130,000 rockets, missiles, and mortar shells, while, in Gaza, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad had many thousands of additional rockets and mortar shells. At the same time, there is a growing threat from long-range one-way attack drones, many of them supplied by Iran, which have also seen significant use in the current conflict. Notably, only Hezbollah drones are mentioned as having been shot down by the interim Iron Beam in the October engagements, although there may well have been other kinds of targets, too. Approx. 40 launches were identified crossing from Lebanese territory, some of which were IDF Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted 2 Hezbollah explosive UAVs that crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory earlier this evening. — Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 12, 2024 At the same time, laser weapons do have limitations, including their short-term magazine depth being limited to how many successive shots they can fire before thermal loads require the system to cool down. Additionally, laser systems don't function as well in heavy cloud cover and other inclement weather. 'We can only shoot down with a laser what we can see,' Brig. Gen. Rotem previously told the Times of Israel. At the same time, a laser weapon of this kind is very much a point-defense weapon, with its short range meaning that multiple systems will be needed to provide coverage of a significant area. In some situations, even a single very large military base might require multiple such systems to provide adequate defense. With that in mind, Iron Beam is viewed as a system that's complementary to Iron Dome and other kinetic systems, rather than a replacement. Once again, while we don't know in what kind of form the interim Iron Beam was fielded, reports indicate that it was successful, at least to a degree. 'The State of Israel is the first in the world to demonstrate large-scale operational laser interception capabilities,' said Dr. Daniel Gold, the head of the Directorate of Defense Research and Development, who previously helped create the Iron Dome. 'Our vision for deploying laser weapons was realized during the war with tremendous technological and operational success,' Gold added. Gold also suggested that the IDF plans to field similar kinds of laser-based interception systems on aircraft and on warships. Israel has already tested at least one high-powered airborne laser weapon, with the Ministry of Defense announcing in 2021 that it had successfully intercepted several target drones using a system of this kind. You can read more about that test here. Intriguingly, Israeli defense company Elbit Systems responded to news of the combat use of Iron Beam with a tweet with an illustration of an unnamed pod-based laser weapon arming an F-16 fighter. The accompanying text stated: 'At Elbit Systems, hundreds of engineers and experts are working every day on the next frontier: airborne high-power laser systems. This is our mission. This is our future.' Notably, developing and fielding an airborne laser system has proven elusive in the United States, something that TWZ has reported on on various occasions in the past. All things considered, laser weapons are still very much in their infancy. But the fact that Israel rushed a version of its Iron Beam into service last year indicates just how valuable this technology is considered. While laser weapons are not a cure-all for air defense needs, they clearly have a place, and the definitive version of Iron Beam will be a valuable addition to Israel's already impressive multi-layered air defense array. Contact the author: thomas@
Scoop
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Starvation Of Gaza A Continuation Of A Decades-old Plan
Reading an NBC News report a couple of days ago about a Trump administration plan to relocate 1 million Gazans to Libya reminded me of a conversation between the legendary Warsaw Ghetto leader Marek Edelman and fellow fighter and survivor Simcha Rotem that took place more than quarter of a century ago. In the conversation, first reported in Haaretz in 2023, Rotem said the Jews who walked into the gas chambers without a fight did so only because they were hungry. Edelman disagreed, but Rotem insisted. 'Listen, man. Marek, I'm surprised by your attitude. They only went because they were hungry. Even if they'd known what awaited them they would have walked into the gas chambers. You and I would have done the same.' Edelman cut him off. 'You would never have gone' [to the gas chamber.] Rotem replied, 'I'm not so sure. I was never that hungry.' Edelman agreed, saying: 'I also wasn't that hungry,' to which Rotem said, 'That's why you didn't go.' The NBC report claims that Israeli officials are aware of the plan and talks have been held with the Libyan leadership about taking in 1 million ethnically cleansed Palestinians.. The carrot being offered is the unfreezing of billions of dollars of Libya's own money seized by the US more than a decade ago. The Arabic word Sumud – or steadfastness – is synonymous with the Palestinian people. The idea that 1 million Gazans would agree to walk off the 1.4% of historic Palestine that is Gaza is inconceivable. But then the idea that my great grandmother and other relatives walked into the gas chambers is equally incomprehensible. But we've never been that hungry. The people of Gaza are. No food has entered Gaza for 76 days. Half a million Gazans are facing starvation and the rest of the population (more than 1.5 million people) are suffering from high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the UN. Last year, Israel's finance minister Bezalel Smotrich was widely condemned when he suggested starving Gaza might be 'justified and moral.' The lack of outrage and urgency being expressed by world leaders – particularly western leaders – after nearly 11 weeks of Israel actually starving the inhabitants of what retired IDF general Giora Eiland has called a giant concentration camp – is an outrage. As far as I'm aware there's been no talk of cutting off diplomatic relations, trade embargos or even cultural boycotts. Israel – which last time I looked wasn't in Europe – just placed second in Eurovision. 'I'm happy,' an Israeli friend messaged me, 'that my old genocidal homeland (Austria) won and not my current genocidal nation.' A third generation Israeli, she's one of a tiny minority protesting the war crimes being committed less than 100km from her apartment. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez and Irish president, Michael Higgins, is an honourable exception to the muted criticism being expressed by western leaders. Sanchez had declared Israel a genocidal state and said Spain won't do business with such a nation, And peaking at a national famine commemoration held over the weekend Higgens said the UN Security Council has failed again and again by not dealing with famines and the current 'forced starvation of the people of Gaza.' He cited UN secretary general António Guterres saying "as aid dries up, the floodgates of horror have re-opened. Gaza is a killing field – and civilians are in an endless death loop." Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen argued in his 1981 book Poverty and Famines that famines are man-made and not natural disasters. Unlike Gaza, the famines he wrote about were caused by either callous disregard by the ruling elites for the populations left to starve or the disastrous results of following the whims of an all-powerful leader like chairman Mao. He argued that a famine had never occurred in a functioning democracy. It's a horrifying fact that a self-described democracy, funded and abetted by the world's most powerful democracy, has been allowed by the international community to starve two million people with no let-up in its bombing of barely functioning hospitals and killing of more than 2000 Gazans since the ban on food entering the strip was put in place. (Many more will have died due to a lack of medicine, food, and access to clean water.) After more than two months of denying any food or medicine to enter Gaza Israel is now saying it will allow limited amounts of food in to avoid a full-scale famine. 'Due to the need to expand the fighting, we will introduce a basic amount of food to the residents of Gaza to ensure no famine occurs,' prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu explained. 'A famine might jeopardise the continuation of Operation Gideon's Chariots aimed at eliminating Hamas.' If 19-months of indiscriminate bombardment, the razing to the ground of whole cities, the displacement of virtually the entire population, and more than 50,000 recorded deaths (the Lancet estimated the true figure is likely to be four times that) hasn't destroyed Hamas to Israel's satisfaction it's hard to conceive of what will. But accepting that that is the real aim of the ongoing genocide would be naïve. In the first cabinet meeting following the Six Day War, long before Hamas came into existence, ridding Gaza of its Palestinian inhabitants was top of the agenda. "If we can evict 300,000 refugees from Gaza to other places … we can annex Gaza without a problem," defence minister Moshe Dayan said. The population of Gaza was 400,000 at the time. "We should take them to the East Bank [Jordan] by the scruff of their necks and throw them there,' minister Yosef Sapir said. Fifty-eight years later the possible destinations may have changed but the aim remains the same. And a shamefully indifferent western world combined with a malnourished and desperate population may be paving the way to a mass expulsion. If the US, Europe and their allies demanded that Israel stop, the killing would end tomorrow. By Jeremy Rose
The Sun
23-04-2025
- Automotive
- The Sun
Genesis unveils tank-tough X Gran Equator SUV with off-road muscle & posh interior – I can't wait to drive it
Rob Gill Published: Invalid Date, THE Hyundai motor group makes cars and tanks. Like, proper 16-wheel battle tanks with self-loading cannons and armour that's 850mm thick. 6 6 6 So it knows how to do off-road. And it knows how to do luxury. So we're pretty sure this Genesis will have the minerals to take on Range Rover and Mercedes when it hits the road in 2028. It's called the Genesis X Gran Equator. It's not electric. Because that'd be no good in the desert. You'd need a really long charging cable. It's a range-extender. It has a petrol engine which charges a battery which then feeds two e-motors, one on each axle, to drive the wheels. So it's electric all-wheel drive. Chunky tyres bolted to beadlock wheels help it to bite into any surface. Yet the body is pebble-smooth and sophisticated and the cabin is awash with quilted leather. There are no IMAX-sized display screens in here, just lots of old-school buttons and dials. Everyone has their own sunroof. Or tank hatch. Genesis g70 Everyone has grab handles in the centre armrests. We like it a lot. We caught up with Genesis design chief Luc Donckerwolke as he previewed two cars at the New York Auto Show — this luxury off-roader and the firm's 2026 Le Mans racer. Beauty of the empty space He said: 'It's clear that we never do show cars as showbusiness. Every show car that we do has an intent to eventually be produced. 'Neolun is going to be our flagship. But at the same time there is a possibility to bring another vehicle in our line-up which will have more off-road capability. 'We would not do a G-Wagen because that is anchored in tradition from Mercedes. We certainly don't have the DNA of a Jeep or a Range Rover. 'So this car has the design DNA of a Genesis, transporting our brand values of luxury and hospitality into the car. 'We are living in an era where design is oversaturated. Every car you have design elements where you can make three cars out of one. We don't need that. Everybody is free to have their own identity. But at Genesis we are living in the purity, we are reducing, we are what we call the beauty of the empty space. It is not overwhelmed. It is not extroverted. 'This car has such incredible proportions that we don't need to put a lot of make-up on it. 'If you have a pig, you need a lot of make-up. We are working to make sure we don't have a pig at the start.' Genesis has already confirmed that range-extenders are part of its hybrid strategy. Hyundai's military division Rotem builds K2 tanks for South Korea Poland and the Middle East. Donckerwolke said: 'We do eight-wheelers, we do tanks, we do a lot of things. 'So it all depends on which competence we want to use from which brand of the group.' Hurry up and build the thing and gimme the keys. 6 6 6
Forbes
30-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Online Resale Jumped 23% In 2024, With AI Tools Driving Growth
A secondhand clothing processing center operated by ThredUp, the online resale marketplace for ... More apparel, shoes, and accessories. A record number of Americans bought secondhand apparel in 2024, and more than half of those shoppers made a purchase online, according to the 2025 ThredUp Resale report. ThredUp, an online resale platform for women's and children's clothing, shoes and accessories, has been tracking the evolution of the resale market since 2013, with an annual report. While each report has shown steady growth in consumer acceptance of, and demand for, secondhand apparel, this year's report, ThredUp's 13th, signals that resale is positioned for a period of accelerated growth. AI tools ThredUp, and other resale platforms, began using in 2024 are making it as easy to search and shop online for secondhand apparel as it is to shop for new merchandise. The growing integration of social commerce and resale, along with price concerns triggered by tariff policies also are expected to boost secondhand sales. The U.S. secondhand apparel market grew by 14% last year - its strongest annual growth since 2021, and five times the growth rate of the overall apparel market, ThredUp said in its report, which is based on research by GlobalData, including surveys of consumers and retail executives. U.S. online resale had even more dramatic growth in 2024, up 23%. Online resale is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 13% over the next five years, and double, to reach $40 billion by 2029, according to the report. Globally, the secondhand apparel market is expected to reach $367 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 10%, according to the ThredUp report. In 2024, 58% of shoppers bought secondhand, up from 52% in 2023, which was the first time in the history of ThredUp reports that secondhand shoppers exceeded 50%. An even greater percentage of younger shoppers - 68% of millennials and Gen Z - said they shopped secondhand in 2024. Of those younger shoppers, 48% said secondhand is the first option they look for when they shop for apparel, up 7 points over the previous year. 'It's kind of wild to think that in the younger generations, it's not just that they're shopping secondhand, but that it's the first place they're going,' Alon Rotem. Chief Strategy Officer at ThredUp, said in an interview. The shift in acceptance of secondhand apparel is happening broadly, 'but it's happening even more pointedly with the younger generations,' he said. Rotem said a number of factors are driving growth in resale, among the most significant of which are artifical intelligence tools that make it easier for consumers to more easily shift through all of the online secondhand offerings and find exactly what they are looking for. 'You have shopping innovations that make it easier to shop secondhand, so it feels more like shopping new,' he said. Three new ways ThredUp has been leveraging AI over the past year are with enhanced image search, style chat, and improved response to written search requests, Rotem said, Image search allows shoppers to search for a secondhand item using a picture they uploaded from the internet, or that they took of something they saw on the street, and match it to ThredUp's inventory. Style chat, Rotem said, functions as an AI style expert that can help a customer put together complete outfits. ThredUp CEO James Reinhart, in an interview last August, called the recently launched AI tools the 'most compelling product' in the history of the company, and game-changer for ThredUp. In ThredUp's fourth quarter earnings call with investors March 1, Reinhart said 'We continue to believe that AI disproportionately benefits ThredUp relative to other marketplaces and retailers, and that generative AI can significantly enhance the secondhand shopping experience.' Reinhart also said on the call that ThredUp launched automated digital measurements during the quarter, which will improve the shopping experience for customers and result in improved conversion, lower returns and increased customer retention. The AI advances in the resale industry are mirroring the rapid adoption of AI across the retail universe. Consumers also are showing broad acceptance of AI shopping tools. with Adobe reporting earlier this month that AI-driven traffic to U.S. ecommerce websites has been doubling every two months since September. Social commerce also is driving secondhand growth, Rotem said. 'It's the fastest growing way people are shopping online,' he said, and consumers are sharing videos about their secondhand finds and celebrating the fact that they found a great secondhand item. 'All of those things are normalizing secondhand resale and driving and contributing to that growth,' he said. According to the ThredUp report, 39% of younger generation shoppers made a secondhand purchase on a social commerce platform over the past 12 months. Of those, 62% made a purchase on TikTok or TikTok Shop. Executives from the top 50 fashion and retail brands were surveyed for the report, and 38% said they currently allow customers to shop secondhand through a social commerce platform. Another 48% said they are considering integrating social commerce in the future.
