Designing a realistic nuclear destroyer leader

Should the US Navy have continued building nuclear destroyer leaders or cruisers, and what might a nuclear Burke-based cruiser look like?

Perhaps, but a credible design would need a larger strengthened hull, a defined command-and-aviation role, and a costed solution for reactor and electrical-system demands.

Continued construction of nuclear destroyer leaders or cruisers is defensible only with major logistical reservations. A quick sketch cannot establish a realistic, costed warship design. Reactor machinery and shielding would probably require a longer, strengthened hull instead of a simple substitution inside an existing Burke. Extra volume could hold command facilities, another helicopter, sensors, or missiles, depending on the intended role. Directed-energy weapons or railguns would also make electrical storage and supercapacitors central to the design.