The bigger strategic value of this IMHO is that we can offer every US flagged merchant ship the option of buying one of these for self-defense purposes while refusing to provide them to non-US merchants.
Suddenly it becomes valuable again for ships to be US flagged instead of taking the cheaper Panamanian or other flag that so many merchants do.
There’s still the millions of dollars in difference due to labor, inspection, maintenance and other regulatory burdens...but I’d expect insurance costs and such would drop....course I don’t expect it to happen...but...
If a freighter can spare the electric power a hidden laser would work great. Commercial ships aren’t supposed to be attacked
by belligerants but the Irans and before them the Germans never got the idea. When it got to b e obvious that the German subs were attacking our Atlantic commercial fleet we started building knock-down boxes on the decks of freighters. The boxes hid a Navy 5” gun. When a sub showed itself the box sides came down and a 5” round quickly headed for the sub’s sail. Took the fun out of dornitz’s plans. I don’t see why a similar setup wouldn’t work in the Persian gulf, and for that matter, the East Coast of Afrika. Yeah, you have to add a couple crewmen that can shoot but Trump can set it up?