Could shorter class runs reduce US procurement risk?

Should the Navy build more classes with fewer ships in each rather than lock itself into very long production runs?

That could work if early shortcomings lead to adaptation rather than cancellation, but the present system makes a new class politically vulnerable when it fails to deliver immediately.

Shorter, evolving class runs are considered workable here if early shortcomings lead to adaptation. A hypothetical Zumwalt follow-on would retain the hull and power system while replacing one gun with Mark 41 VLS, putting a 5-inch gun forward, and modifying the radar. The suggested result is an air-defence destroyer with capacity for future upgrades. Batches of about 20 are used as an illustration of how that line could lead to a subsequent design. The wider interpretation is that fear of individual programme failure favours returning to the proven Burke, even when parts of a new design might be retained. The proposed Zumwalt arrangement is a counterfactual concept rather than a completed engineering design.