A more conventional Zumwalt with mixed VLS batteries

Would a more conventional Zumwalt variant with Mark 41 and Mark 57 VLS plus a 5-inch gun have been easier to continue building?

Probably: a large mixed missile battery and familiar gun would preserve recognizable Burke-like air-defence and strike roles while still introducing Zumwalt's new technology.

One proposed variant retains roughly eighty Mark 57 cells while adding sixty-four Mark 41 cells and a conventional 5-inch gun. The eighty Mark 57 cells could also carry air-defence weapons, making the division between strike and defence flexible. A larger alternative would preserve ninety-six Mark 41 cells alongside the eighty Mark 57 cells. The panel argues that these arrangements would make the ship's role easier to recognize and continued construction easier to justify. Zumwalt is compared with HMS Warrior and Gloire as an example of introducing extensive new technology within a familiar ship category. This is an alternative-design argument, without a claim that the proposed variant was approved.