While the article did say a fair amount of things, there are no significant details in here on what the classification of these laser-based weapons are and what capabilities they posses. It does speak to the nature of the lasing medium which is a chemical laser in this instance. The breakthrough is noteworthy for its potential achievement (which needs to be proven verified and real) to produce better chemical lasers that are more efficient on keeping the laser reaction and resonant cavity sufficiently supplied with fresh reagents to keep the laser output continuous and of sufficient power output. Much successful research and experimentation has been done in this same area around the world so it's less of a "breakthrough" than a milestone. Again, their work would need to be verified and proven to know for sure. I'd expect this to be as real as the LK-99 ambient temperature/pressure superconductor material the media buzzed about a few weeks ago. But back on topic now. Chemical lasers are never capable of operating infinitely as they rely on supplies of reagents to produce chemical reactions which have photonic emission as part of their reaction products. These reagents are highly reactive and often corrosive and dangerous and storing them is already a huge issue for making them usable as airborne- or field-based weapons. You simply can't take enough reagents with you to keep the laser going indefinitely and you have the added difficulty of removing and dealing with the hazardous waste that will come out of the reaction of these reagents. They solved the heat and replenishment problem but now have created many new problems that will be difficult to deal with. And on top of all of this, how much output power are we talking here anyway? Shooting down rockets and missiles only sounds impressive because of the laser, but in reality gravity did the real work of destroying them. Ablating a hole thrown thin aluminum skin is relatively impressive, but all you need to do is disable the electronics/flight control systems enough to make it not fly properly and you've successfully neutralized the missile. It's not like the entire missile was instantly vaporized like it would be in a (((movie))). It's just a well placed bullet hole or two made by a bullet composed of light instead of lead.