——prove itself to be hugely capable ——
capable of what? what purpose will the vessel serve?
Saw one of these at the Bath Iron Works in Maine. Funky looking.
When they cut the class back to only three ships, all the development costs for the ships and every weapon of feature specific to that limited use also had to pay for itself in the small number produced.
The ship had been envisioned to replace the usage of large battleships in Sea to Land artillery and missile fire. A littoral ship.
Wiki does a nice summary saying:
The ship is designed around its two Advanced Gun Systems, their turrets and magazines, and unique Long Range Land Attack Projectile (LRLAP) ammunition.[9] LRLAP procurement was cancelled, rendering the guns unusable,[9] so the Navy is re-purposing the ships for surface warfare.[12]
The special ammunition ran up to 800k per shell since only three ships could have used them and the Navy scraped the whole deal since they aren’t thrilled with the handling and other features.