The lost US Navy strike-cruiser capacity

Which US shipbuilding programme should have been built, and which cancelled?

Build more Constellations now, but the bigger missed opportunity was cancelling the strike-cruiser programme.

The discussion argues that the United States needs more ships of roughly strike-cruiser scale, while its three Zumwalts cannot fill the gap. The class had progressed far enough to offer a credible large surface-combatant path rather than a vague paper idea. Its cancellation in the closing Ford administration is identified as a consequential procurement decision. Building more Constellations helps the smaller-escort problem, but it does not replace the lost heavily armed cruiser capacity.