The US Navy cannot escape its production bottleneck without new yards

How small must a fourth-rate US warship be to avoid the production bottlenecks affecting supercarriers?

Size alone cannot solve the problem because decades of limited ordering have left too few slipways and production lines, so the Navy must invest and order enough ships to expand the industrial base.

The production constraint applies beyond supercarriers. The United States and other navies have allowed their active yard capacity to shrink around narrow procurement plans. A smaller design may fit more facilities, but it cannot create skilled workers, suppliers, or building ways by itself. Direct investment backed by enough orders to sustain expanded production is the solution, rather than another attempt to design around the bottleneck.