TL;DR
Cheap drones can threaten a base, a ship or a city, and the missiles that shoot them down often cost far more than the drones. The beams built to answer them are no longer a two-country story. In October alone, South Korea, Türkiye and Hungary each said a laser had brought down a target drone, Russia said its own lasers are nearly through testing, and two U.S. makers showed microwave weapons built to knock out whole swarms at once. If even some of these work outside a demo, shooting down a drone could cost a few dollars instead of a missile, which may blunt cheap drones wherever these systems stand guard. Nearly every result so far is the makers' own claim.
Below the line, for paid subscribers: The full story: where it stands, how we got here and what's dated next; our Odds board on 6 milestones, starting with "Laser drone defense in routine Turkish use by 2028"; our labeled speculation on what it adds up to; and every source.