however the range to power on target does indeed matter when you are talking Knocking down missiles in flight. There is a limited span of time and a limited range at which you can get the proper amount of power on target. They are both moving and a relatively high speed and keeping a focused beam of light on one spot for more that .5 sec is damn near impossible. The attenuation due to atmospheric interference warps light and will in-fact lessen the effective power on target and a distance. effective distance unless it is in the extremely high power range will be less than 1000 miles.... how does this help?
I don't want to sound uppity, but I have spent my career on this kind of problem. Yes it is difficult, but it is also doable, even at the ranges and speeds we are talking about for the ABL and the targets.