Subject: Re: let's talk BBG...
If it’s more VLS cells you want, then the way to do it is through the auxiliary cruiser route.

We need more. However, the auxiliary cruiser concepts I have seen are basically just floating missile platforms that do little else. The problem with those is that if you sink just one, you damage the combat capabilities of the group relying on it tremendously. Sort of "putting all your eggs in one basket". (Which also is a problem with the BBG...since we can produce fewer of them, it hurts more when one is sunk.) Better to finish the DDG(x), and build for quantity. It would be a much more capable ship, and we could crank out a lot of them.

I note that they just launched a flight-3 Arleigh-Burke (Ted Stevens) this week. It's certainly a capable ship, but we need to give the HII shipyard a new, more capable, design to build.

You are correct that we could displace amphibious assault ships to build the BBG, but then you're having to choose between which you would build. Meanwhile, we have fully capable destroyer shipyards that could start building a DDG(x) instead of an Arleigh-Burke. Direct replacement, instead of choosing between which class of ship you can build.