Can we expedite the rate of replacement to not leave a gap?
Unlikely. It would take a huge investment. All of the Flight III Burkes are in excess of what was planned for the class, as were about a dozen Flight IIA ships. In the end, we will have 92 of them. The problem lies in the Navy's disastrous ship building program. The Zumwalt class destroyer that was to succeed the Burkes, and the CGX cruiser that was to replace the Ticos were both cancelled. The 2 LCS variants have been a clown show, and now the Constellation class frigate is being delayed. There is no new cruiser in sight, and probably never will be. The next generation DDG will be in the mid 2030s at the earliest. Maybe they'll redesignate it a cruiser to justify cost overruns.