Unie's gun armament and the wait for dependable missiles

If the World of Warships Dutch cruiser Unie had been built with six twin Bofors 120 mm mountings, would it have served as a stopgap like the Tiger class?

The hypothetical gun cruiser could provide useful service while missiles matured into dependable shipboard systems, especially if it completed an available hull with effective guns.

Unie is the World of Warships design used to frame this historical procurement question. Its six twin Bofors 120 mm mountings are compared with the four twin 150 mm mountings of the De Zeven Provinciën type, and the smaller guns are linked to those carried by Friesland. The panel questions the change in arrangement but accepts that such a ship could provide useful service. A promising missile does not yet give a navy a reliable system around which to design a ship. Completing an available hull with capable guns could therefore make sense while the successor technology matured.