Wouldn't aerogels let almost all of the laser's energy through?
The aerogels would be thermal insulators under an opaque coating.
My Children of a Dead Earth favorite is a thin layer of something reflective for short-burst thermal reflection, under that something that can take high temperatures like carbon-carbon for sustained lasers, and then a big slab of aerogel to keep that heat off of the more delicate bits.
For lightweight applications like drones I would hazard a guess that specifically engineered aerogels would do well.