The Royal Navy's mixed US and European systems path

Will the Royal Navy move toward US systems or pivot toward European missiles and guns?

It will probably continue a mixed course while developing some British systems; existing launcher choices also constrain which future European missile programs it can readily join.

A continuing mixture of American, European, and British systems is the expected course. Domestic development would continue alongside foreign purchases, with the later follow-up identifying the US 5-inch gun as one adopted system. The absence from the Aquila missile-defence effort is treated as a missed opportunity. One proposed explanation is the Type 45's lack of strike-length cells, which would make adoption of the larger missile system difficult; that causal connection is explicitly uncertain.