Russian 'Peresvet' Combat Laser System

Story here.

Ya know what's worrying here?  It's not the idea that the Russians/Chinese and others are working on lasers.  The worrying part is that we no longer APPEAR (thank God for secret programs...hopefully appearances are deceiving) to have a lead in such tech.

Hypersonics?  We're keeping pace with adversaries at best.

Lasers?  I can't see where we're leading, even though we had an airborne laser a couple of decades ago.

Cyber?  The Russians, Chinese, N. Koreans, UK, France,...the list goes on are all EXTREMELY capable in this field.

Space based weapons?  We still lead but the Chinese are working hard to catch up and the Russians aren't far behind either.

What happens if we've lost not only the quantitative lead but also the tech?

What do we rest our hats on then?