Yeah that's my understanding. Destroyers (and really, any modern naval ship) are not designed to slug it out in ship-to-ship artillery duels like WWI battleship

Yeah that's my understanding. Destroyers (and really, any modern naval ship) are not designed to slug it out in ship-to-ship artillery duels like WWI battleships. They are there to launch missiles at targets from a safe distance. As WWII taught us, any surface vessel is essentially a sitting duck when it comes to air power in the form of planes, missiles, or missiles launched from planes. That is even truer today, as surface-to-surface and air-to-surface munitions have become that much more powerful and accurate. Designing a ship to withstand that kind of punishment is just impractical. The Arleigh Burke class can deliver some real destructive power but as always, air superiority is a must. (This is where I reiterate that I am not particularly knowledgable on this topic; please somebody correct me if needed)