Increasing technological complexity in systems tends to lead to increasing fragility in said systems. And when those systems finally collapse or break you can go backwards technologically faster than you expect.
This is predicated on people actually knowing the old school shit.
It's easier for the infantry. A rifle's a rifle, a machine gun's a machine gun; the major improvements have basically been the shift to intermediate cartridges (5.56mm NATO and 5.45mm Russian) and optics. I'm just an FPS gamer who's dabbled with very limited airsofting, but going from irons to red dots is just so amaze.
Less so for ship systems that haven't been used in decades. Part of why the Iowas can never be reactivated IRL is because there are precious few people who know how this all works.
And having to forbid tactics in wargames because it offends sensibilities of admirals and lobbies never ends poorly, does it?
See below.
On the other hand, we're nearly at the end of the age of capital ships, so ships named for presidents are going to probably be less and less likely going forward.
USN already has to forbid asymmetric warfare tactics in wargames to keep from losing carriers.
Carriers and LHDs are never going away because they remain relevant and you can always find a use for them.
If y'all are thinking of the Millenium Challenge, I should note that Van Ripper was cheating like a motherfucker, as among the shens he got up to included lightspeed bicycle couriers, and sticking AShMs on dhows that would 1) capsize under the weight and 2) lack the radar and FCS to cue those AShMs in the first place.
The media also overestimates CVBG vulnerability to SSKs. A carrier can easily evade an SSK by traveling at flank speed, faster than most SSKs can travel at, and a little known factoid is that while carriers lost organic midrange ASW with the retirement of the S-3 Viking, the USN has been able to consistently deploy P-3 Orions to provide long range ASW coverage for its carriers, and this is before we get into the short range ASW hotness that are Romeo Seahawks on a carrier and DDGs.
The irony is that people whine that carrier groups can't handle asymmetric threats in the littorals, then whine about how LCS (which is supposed to handle asymmetric threats in the littorals) can't handle symmetric threats on the open seas.
Unfortunately, the Abyssals are cheating motherfuckers, so they get to cheat their way past most of what I've said. :/
