Project 17B and preferred VLS capacity

Project 17B is anticipated as the third and largest iteration of the family, at roughly 8,000 tons with roughly 48 vertical launch system (VLS) cells. Those figures are expectations for the future design. A 48-cell fit is judged to be broadly standard for a contemporary frigate, although the preferred figure in this argument is about 64. The same personal scale starts destroyers around 128 cells and reserves the cruiser label for something nearer 192. These numbers express an armament preference rather than formal ship-classification rules. They explain the scepticism toward praise of a frigate merely for carrying what someone calls a destroyer's missile load. The underlying comparison depends on how heavily armed each ship type is expected to be.