There are some fundamentals of modern naval warfare that, for some reason, people seem determined to forget.

No matter how many times actual, real world war at sea proves something, there are over-credentialed, over-confident, and over-paid people manning swivel chairs.

The utility and cost-effectiveness of the multi-purpose naval gun have been demonstrated repeatedly.

The instances are legion in modern war at sea. I’ll pick just three. The Royal Navy experience in The Falklands War was the first post-Vietnam War reminder of how any ship that does not have a multi-purpose main gun is a danger to not just its crew, but to friendly forces ashore.

From Somalia to Libya, the post-911 conflicts are full of examples of 76mm, 100mm, and 5”/127mm main guns being the fastest, most effective, and least costly way of sending ordnance ashore to deal with enemy targets. Real world. Real war. Real effective.