Falklands lessons from costly Leander refits and weak air defence

StanFlex began development around the Falklands War, when the Royal Navy was confronting similar problems of keeping its ships up to date. Leander-class modernization had introduced combinations of Sea Wolf, Exocet, Sea Cat, and Ikara, often at the expense of the 4.5-inch gun. These refits were difficult and expensive, and each involved compromises within the existing hull. The Falklands exposed mistaken radar assumptions and air-defence weapons judged so ineffective that they amounted to dead weight. The cost of the upgrade program had also prevented enough ships from receiving the improvements the navy wanted. Easier modernization therefore forms a central requirement in the post-1982 StanFlex counterfactual.