Crown Colony cruiser conversions were a funding choice

Could the Crown Colony-class cruisers have been converted into guided-missile cruisers?

All were theoretically convertible, but the practical limit was how much money the navy was willing to spend.

The Crown Colony group, including the Fiji subclass, could theoretically have been rebuilt along guided-missile-cruiser lines. The engineering possibility did not make such work automatically worthwhile. A conversion programme would have competed for the same money as new ships, weapons, maintenance, and other fleet priorities. The useful distinction is therefore between what a hull can physically accept and what a navy can afford to implement across an entire class.