One objection: "when other more affordable options which can be produced more quickly and in greater numbers and are more useful are available". I cannot see that option, especially available ones.

The Constellation class would have been available as a completed design. The only other options are the LCS - and they are less than optimal compared to the much more heavily armed Chinese ships - even if escorted by a lot of unmanned ships. The unmanned assets would have to compensate for the lack of sonar, the lack of good radar, the lack of sufficient air-defence, the weak anti-ship capability etc. Some of that is possible, but e.g. I do not see how they could improve the sensor capabilities for air defense. And the LCS are also suboptimal in regard of range and sea keeping. They are optimised too much for high-speed.