Constellation and the pressure to reproduce a smaller Burke

Constellation's parent design offered considerable flexibility, which also left room for extensive changes as the Americans adapted it for domestic construction. The result became a substantially different ship. The class receives a favourable assessment as a design, while the expectation of broad capability at a low price is judged unrealistic. Using the successful Arleigh Burke programme as the familiar standard for reducing risk pushed requirements toward a smaller version of that destroyer. In this interpretation, caution can drive design growth even without an explicit decision to build a miniature Burke.