Weapons looking for a job.
The systems in testing are very cool, but they have no practical applications.
Rail guns are sweet, but the rate of fire is terrible. Beyond that to speak of hitting targets hundreds of miles away shows some ones lack of understanding on projectile trajectories, the curve of the earth and a little thing called gravity. Even with the speed of rail guns, they would be doing some physics defying feats if they figured out how to fire a projectile from the deck of a ship 60 feet above the water and have it travel hundreds of miles to hit a target without being rocket guided or sprouting wings.
Lasers against missiles have shown potential against ballistic missiles, but I have yet to see a laser take out a sea skimming cruise missile. The current CIWS throws a curtain of shots at a missile with an extremely high probability of a hit. That is the benchmark to be beat and lasers, as an anti cruise missile weapon, do not come close.
Same with using lasers on small boats. Yes they can light a small boats engine on fire with a laser, but it takes over 30 seconds pointed at an anchored target. They are not exactly testing to combat conditions.
Again the benchmark to beat is the performance of existing weapons. Based on that the laser does not come close to being an effective point defense weapon against small boats.
The revolutionary new weapons outlined here bring nothing to the fight, but glam and glitz.
