(NAVSEA)(NSWC)(UAV)(LaWS)(DE&EWS)(PMS 405)(PEO IWS)KINETO (CIWS)(TDA)... That is a lot of acronyms for one article! Sounds like defensive missiles will become a thing of the past in the next 10-20 years.
We will know them all soon.
Hopefully, yes, because the problem with missiles is you run out of them fairly quickly.
Problem with lasers is what weather conditions they work in. With various combinations of wavelengths, etc. you can sort of get around this problem. Or so the laser people say.
A competing technology is a smaller railgun for close-in defense, like the General Atomics Blitzer:
http://www.ga.com/news.php?read=1&id=275
All weather, and the projectiles themselves are really small, so while you have to worry about ammo it’s not as bad as a missile system.