Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has been praising the Iron Beam laser defense system that Israel is developing as a major military and economic advance.

"Rafael's laser system is a strategic game-changer for the State of Israel and the world as well, a system that already today knows how to shoot down mortar rounds, UAVs and rockets," Bennett said during his visit to a Rafael facility in May. "This is a game-changer because we can not only strike the enemy militarily but also weaken it economically."

"Until today it would cost us a lot of money to intercept every rocket," he added. "Today they can invest tens of thousands of dollars in a rocket and we can invest two dollars to cover the cost of the electricity in shooting down the rocket."

Bennett has highlighted the amazing cost-efficiency of the Iron Beam in recent months. For the past decade now, Israel has been counting on its famous Iron Dome missile defense system for shooting down the thousands of rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip. Short-range Hamas rockets often only cost a few thousand dollars to manufacture, while each Tamir interceptor missile fired by the Iron Dome costs more than $50,000.

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Aside from being a major economic advantage over their enemies, Bennett believes the addition of the Iron Beam to Israel's high-tech air defenses will also strengthen the economy since it will significantly reduce the cost of countering rocket and drone threats, explained a senior Israeli official.

"Although there are other laser-based defense systems already deployed, there aren't any that claim to act like Iron Beam to cheaply destroy small targets like rockets," said Ryan Bohl, Stratfor's Middle East and North Africa analyst at RANE. "That puts Iron Beam into its own category in terms of mission type."

Bohl anticipates that the Iron Beam potentially could make it cheaper for Israel to defeat rocket and drone attacks "so long as the system performs as well in a real combat situation as it does in testing."

"There's also a question of the logistics of supporting the system and the price of the supply chain — the $2 a shot may be a headline phrase that in practice doesn't quite pan out," he said. "There's also a question as to whether or not Hamas or other militants might find their own ways to cut costs to keep pace with the economics of Israel's defensive systems."

Although the Gaza strip has been the main active enemy against Israel in terms of rocket attacks, Lebanon and Iranian-backed Hezbollah will be the true challenge to its highly advanced arsenal.

"Right now, it remains theoretical as to how well Iron Beam would perform under such swarm attacks; other systems have touted their ability to block such attacks and failed to completely block them," Bohl said.