The discussion traces a procurement spiral in which railgun ambitions, programme reductions, and the return to the Advanced Gun System repeatedly changed the design case. With only three ships, the specialised ammunition became prohibitively expensive per round. Bath Iron Works had also been retooled for Zumwalt, then had to be retooled again for renewed Burke construction and will face another transition for a future class. In this argument, continuing the hull with a more conventional combat-system fit would have preserved industrial investment and delivered badly needed large surface combatants.
Notable Point · 3:11:35-3:14:04
How shrinking Zumwalt quantities broke the AGS case
Cutting the Zumwalt class from a large programme to three hulls spread development, ammunition, and shipyard costs across too few ships.