No SDI can never work nor spin off anything useful

Times of India

Short range rockets or artillery shells are hard to hit and shoot down. They are not up in the air long enough to be tracked, targeted and for a missile to intercept them.

What about a laser?

Well the US and Israel are developing just such a laser and it has been successful in tests.

Gee, if the US had not spent a lot of money on basic SDI research from the 1980s onward, this technology would not be available today. And while the Katyusha rockets may not be as devastating as an ICBM, the bad guys are much more likely to fire them then an ICBM.