Four questions before designing a cruiser

The framework insists that naval design is not a search for an abstractly best ship. A navy must decide what the ship needs to do, what it would like it to do, what it can fund, and which absence would create an unacceptable strategic gap. Keeping those four questions separate prevents desirable features from masquerading as indispensable ones. It also exposes the choice between concentrating money in one sophisticated hull and buying enough ships to cover all required stations.