My take on acquisition problems has been the disjointed definition of capability between the different roles. In WW2 there was quite a lot of consistency from the lowest tiers to the top. A frigate didn't so much exist in USN jargon, and we had destroyer escorts. The British flipped the words and called them Escort Destroyers, but it didn't stop there as they also had frigates of the same weight class. The British distinguished frigates from destroyers simply by whether they carried torpedoes or not, and they had lighter sloops and an ambiguous notion of larger corvettes that were smaller than frigates but larger than sloops. The Russians had guard ships and the Japanese had kaibōkan (coastal patrol ship) in similar roles. Then you had all sorts of minor combatants such as gunboats, torpedo boats, patrol ships, monitors, and coastal defense ships. The USN kept it pretty simple, strap the biggest gun on it that it can handle. Smaller ships generally carried 3-inch/50-cal (76 mm) guns, and larger ones got 5-inch/38-cal (127 mm) guns. Anti aircraft guns ranged in size from M2 Browning .50-cal BMGs, 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon cannon, 1.1-inch/75-cal (28 mm) "Chicago Pianos", and the 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors. But they simplified in most cases to single 20 mm and twins 40 mm mountings across smaller warships. Early pre-WW2 destroyers might have 4″/50-cal M1898s (102 mm) and/or obsolete 3-inch/23-cal (76 mm) guns. Destroyer escorts, primarily for antisubmarine warfare and convoy escort service, started getting built around 3-inch/50-cal (76 mm) guns in open mounts. Later destroyer escorts and pre-WW2 built destroyers often carried single 5-inch/38-cal (127 mm) guns in enclosed mounts. Destroyers built during the war had improved mountings and gun fire control systems. Twin 5-inch/38-cal (127 mm) guns started to become standard as destroyers got progressively designed larger. Early pre-WW2 cruisers and battleships with open mount 5-inch/25-cal (127 mm) guns were being replaced by more capable cruisers and battleships with concentric rings of twin 5-inch/38-cal (127 mm) guns, backed by massive arrays of 20 mm and 40 mm cannon. The Oerlikon and Bofors were also spread across lighter vessels. Ships were bought in progressive sizes. Guns were built to progressive sizes. Boilers, fire controls, radars, and everything else were built with a small variances of sizes whenever possible, adapting designs to use what could be sustained during war-time. My current sense is that the USN has too many designs to maintain, and it needs to get back to the discipline of keeping new options and old options across the globe at the same time. Instead of upgrading every fleet with a hodgepodge, concentrate all of the new stuff into key areas and bump leftovers to the rest with an eye towards concentrating the same standardized equipment into the same fleets. The 7th and 5th Fleets needs the best atm. The 4th the least. The 2nd, 3rd, and 6th somewhere in between. Plan for upgrades to go in the key spots and trickle down eventually the the 4th. Assign major and niche assets to the fleets somewhat upon demand. Units in the niche FF(X) category may then better focus on what is needed as standard.
