A space-based platform is always going to be better for that role. An airborne laser will have limits to the amount of power it can put out, and you will have to deal with atmospheric attenuation and loss. Put the laser in space and you’re better off.

A big fat reactor in orbit? Happy cooling! A big fat solar concentrator? Not very survivable.
A cloud of sneaky VLO suicide nano-sats would be my choice for orbital positioning.

If YAL-1 can nail a missile across hundreds of miles of atmosphere it sure can nail a satellite with almost nothing in between.