re: ABL system....
The ABL system is a solution much more appropriate to our current strategic situation than it was to the Cold War (even assuming equally available tech).
The idea is to have aircraft (or ships) outside the border of a small rogue nation, able to cover any launch from that point. A boosting missile is a sitting duck. The centrally-located launchers of the Soviet Union were thousands of miles from the border, and out of reach of any such system in non-Soviet air or sea space. North Korea or Iran, however, are ideally situated for off-shore operation.
Even current tech should be able to deploy a laser or other directed-energy system for large ships. I'm actually surprised they don't have them already.