I don’t know what the Office of Naval Research (ONR) is doing right now, but if they can just come up with a slap-dash design for a *simple* ship, that only needs to do *one* thing well, they need to do so right now.
That ship needs to have a nuclear reactor, which requires significant design elements, and two independent energy “guns” that can take down missiles. It doesn’t have to do *anything* else. No bells and whistles. No missiles or other weapons of its own.
And it never strays from the aircraft carrier task group.
That would also be one of the world’s best AA Cruisers, except during inclement weather. Still, putting a bunch of THELs on a ship might work.
Ship might end up being more like a tanker though since these are chemical lasers. And the greens would really, really hate all that hot, toxic lasing chemical being dumped at sea...