Pacific-war changes and construction delays

By 1944, the class was being refined for a continuing war against Japan. The Royal Navy expected these premier fleet destroyers to screen carriers and capital ships, support amphibious operations, scout, raid, and harass enemy forces. Planners also had to contemplate a blockade or invasion if the new weapons then under development failed to end the conflict. That prospective theatre drove repeated changes to equipment and especially to close air defence. Each modification could make the destroyers better suited to a Pacific fight, but the accumulated redesign also compounded delays that kept most of them from wartime service.