Nuclear strike cruisers could preserve a second specialist yard

What might replace nuclear strike cruisers if they had survived the 1990s cuts?

They might still be serving or drive another nuclear-cruiser generation, while the continuing workload could preserve an additional yard able to support carriers and submarines.

Long-lived nuclear cruisers might not yet require one-for-one replacement. More important, building and maintaining them would create continuing work outside the yards already dedicated to carriers and submarines. Such a yard would need mixed nuclear tasks to remain viable between cruiser projects. That extra industrial node could relieve carrier maintenance or submarine construction bottlenecks when demand surged.