FEL & rail gun
These weapons developments have just had their funding cancelled by CONgress just when they seem to be almost ready to operational deployment. This is short-sighted at best. We live in a dangerous world, and the ability of others to kill our ships is increasing daily with the spread of Chinese-made anti-ship missiles, as well as the usual Russian-made versions. Our Navy needs to keep a technological edge precisely because we have so few ships in the fleet now, if we wish to maintain our ability to go where we please. Such places include the South China Sea/Taiwan, the middle east, etc. Plus, as FuzzyIce said so well, If we ever get out in space, such weapons could deflect/destroy meteoroids that threaten the craft.
