The U.S. Navy plans to field a frigate based on the Coast Guard's National Security Cutter by 2028 after canceling the Constellation class program, which ballooned to only 15% commonality with its FREMM parent design. Converting a lightly-armed 4,600-ton cutter into a VLS-equipped, Aegis-capable warship in three years tests whether the service learned from a decade of failures spanning LCS and Zumwalt programs. The strategic cost is stark: while the Navy scrambles to field a single credible frig