> For ICBMs, one idea was to use orbital, nuclear powered lasers to hit the missile on the boost phase.

Author here. Thank you for your insight.

I took some time to read about the recently proposed "Golden Dome" defense system, and what you laid out seems to be the end goal [0]. It's difficult to tell how realistic this actually is. The size of the constellation of satellites needed seems prohibitive, to say the least.

[0] https://armscontrolcenter.org/fact-sheet-golden-dome/

[1] https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2026/02/space-based-interce...