Very interesting technology. A warship that doesn't have to carry a large load of explosive weapons and propellants can be designed very differently from today's ships. Arrangements, survivability, manning, and CONOPS would be very different.
As to hearts and minds and whatnot, I'd suggest that without our overwhelming military (and hopefully, continuing economic) might, we wouldn't be in the position to do much in that regard.
As to the inaccuracies in the article, as someone who works in defense and has had my work reported on in various outlets, my guess is the blame lies squarely with the reporters & editors. They are notoriously terrible with technical subjects, just read any article about complicated medical studies, engineering topics, etc.
jeff