imo, missile defense system that uses missiles to knock down your enemy missile are getting obsolete. you need to shoot multiples of them to knock down 1 incoming missile. it is not a guarantee. when your defense missile almost hit that incoming missile, it suddenly do a barrel roll to avoid it.
I think the best way to deal with this problem is to setup multiple powerful laser stations that can simultaneously aim at one incoming missile.
Laser weapons have limited advantage due to the following characteristics:
1. Light can only move in a straight line, so it cannot aim at target below the earth curvature or obscured by terrain.
2. Modern laser based weapon's output is mid-to-near infrared coherent lightwave, e.g. 3.8μm for deuterium fluoride laser and 1.3μm for oxygen iodine laser. These wavelengths have limited absorbtion rate against matierals that have high vaporization tempurature such as CFRP, high tempurature alloy or composite ceramic, which are heavily used on attacking missile casing and radome.
3.Each laser source needs to be foucused to a single target for a comparatively long time to achieve significant burn-through effect, meaning it can only handle a limited amount of incoming projectiles in a giving timeframe, i.e. easily saturated.
4.The effectiveness is highly dependant on the air condition and weather. Imagine your missile defensive capabilities halved when it is raining, and reduced to 1/10 when fogging.
While I agree laser is a powerful weapon, but at current tech levels it shouldn't bear the main role of missile defense system. IMO the best way to use laser is to use it against UAV/loitering munitions/kamikaze USVs. In these senarios, laser could utilize strengths of its cost effectivess compared to guided missile defense.