DISCLAIMER: I am not a scientist. I do not claim to be a scientist. I am not anymore related with the terms you are using than the typical Joe across the street. But I love science-fiction and space.
The biggest problem in basicically all of our designs is the fact that targets will be a ways way from your location. For example, if a target where millions of billions of light years away, a satelite based laser wouldn't reach them in a very long period of time. Making them absolutely worthless. If we try to transport a "Fighter" over to that location it would take centuries, even at the speed of the light, to reach it. Now the solution to this is the Alcubierre drive, or some other FTL based drive. However, there is an elephant in the room, to all this disscusion. Where are we on the technological scale. At our current technological ability, none of the energy sources you would imply, Antimatter and Fusion, would not be possible. However, If we are all the way at the end of the technological scale, hitting the absolute of technology, then maybe there are even infinite energy sources with no cooling issues, FTL drives, and the magical "Inertia Dampners".