Why impossible requirements rarely produce balanced warships

Have impossible naval requirements ever produced a genuinely good ship?

Rarely; they usually force a serious flaw, as the Littoral Combat Ship's emphasis on speed illustrates.

The panel rejects the idea that impossible requirements usually produce unexpectedly excellent warships. Instead, the design tends to carry a visible flaw or an unresolved compromise. The Littoral Combat Ship is offered as the cautionary example: an overriding demand for speed displaced attention from the hull and stability needed for a balanced combatant. The example connects an abstract requirements problem to a recognizable procurement outcome.