I finally started my 1/350 Arleigh Bruke Class Yesterday, and the first thing I realised is, "man this tin can is BIG!" So I went over to my 1/350 Fletcher and put the hulls next to each other. THe thing is about 2x as wide 1.25 to 1.5x as long and much much deeper than the Fletcher. While no battleship or carrier, the thing is huge! Much much bigger than I thought It would be based on the fletcher I had previously built.

Scrunge,
Being a Tin Can Sailor I might be able to answer your question. The biggest reason is STABILITY!!!! The Navy want a nice stabile platform to fire missiles from, meaning a wider beam to the ship. Plus another reason is the Burke Class DDG's are the first ship where the weapons systems were a priority in the design phase of the contract. If you realy look at a DDG, you can see that everything realy does go where it should, not like jumble of antenea and weapons of the Sprucance DD's. So that's why its bigger... Now then new Flight IIa DDG's (DDG78) and above are even long with the additon of the HELO Hanger. Hope you enjoy building your DDG, and if you want more info are have more questions feel free to ask. STUG