The US Navy should have preserved low-rate frigate production

What lesser-known example shows a navy making a serious mistake by pausing production?

Ending US frigate production in the 1990s and 2000s erased the design culture needed for a true escort and encouraged every replacement to grow toward another Arleigh Burke.

The United States relied on Arleigh Burkes and ageing Oliver Hazard Perry frigates instead of maintaining a modest flow of new escorts. Once the frigate design culture disappeared, planners approached each replacement through the destroyer requirements they knew best. The Constellation program then accumulated changes that moved it far from the parent FREMM design. This resembles a company accustomed to heavy trucks demanding that every delivery van perform like a truck. A continuing frigate line would have preserved a realistic template, workforce, and requirements baseline when larger numbers became necessary. It could also have relieved the Littoral Combat Ship of missions that distorted that separate program.