Q&A · 3:30:27-3:36:37

Turning Crown Colony cruisers into modern mission ships

A modernization thought experiment shows why Second World War cruisers offer useful volume while smaller destroyers do not.

Question

How could Crown Colony cruisers and Tribal destroyers be modernized for contemporary missions?

Short answer

Cruisers could take gas turbines, missiles, radar, and a hangar, but the Tribal hull is too small; cruiser displacement is roughly the practical lower bound for the full package.

Notes

In this hypothetical, surviving wartime ships become available for modern Royal Navy missions. Crown Colony-class cruisers offer enough hull volume to consider replacing their machinery with gas turbines, installing radar and vertical-launch missile cells, and turning the stern into a helicopter hangar. The existing 4-inch gun positions might accept close-in weapons of roughly similar weight. Smaller replacement machinery could leave additional space for missile cells along the centreline. Town-class cruisers receive a preference for this work, although the Crown Colonies remain plausible candidates. Tribal-class destroyers are judged too small for the proposed collection of modern systems.