To grasp the Navy's gravely inadequate response to its ominously shrinking numbers, start with the DDG-1000 program. Born years ago as the DD-21 and then morphing into the DD(X), it has muddled through several incarnations, forecasting ever more optimistic capabilities, while shedding none of its earlier pretensions, with the Navy looking forward to eventual delivery of a handful of gold-plated warships capable—per recent puffery—"of meeting all threats for decades to come."
