The day of massive warships firing 16” shells is past. What the Navy needs is many dozens of medium size ship, like a WWII light cruiser, bristling with ship killer missles.
These cruisers proved their sea-worthiness, and with a plethora of missle launchers replacing very large triple turrets, its fire power and targeting range would be awesome.
Add a fantail with a copter pad (or 2) and there would be a capable fighting ship at a low cost when compared with the price of a single super-carrier.
With the fitting of shorter range smaller rocket launchers the Navy would have a serious Anti-Aircraft ship which could do screening duties protecting the large carriers.
I guess, but nothing says ‘brotherly love’ like a shell that weighs more then a Volkswagen coming straight at you!
A Burke-class destroyer costs like a billion dollars. Wasn’t that long ago you could buy a carrier for that. But you’re going to need the range, sea-keeping & sensor package that the Burke carrys. Something similar will be the platform for the new laser, drone & ABM battleground capabilities.