The class was meant to protect carriers and trade while Britain developed missile cruisers, making completion of existing hulls cheaper than starting over. Tiger's keel dated from 1941, but she did not commission until 1959, showing how thoroughly the wartime hull had been rebuilt during construction. Her automatic weapons looked formidable, yet gun teething troubles and shortages of skilled technical personnel reduced sustained readiness. She nevertheless served as Mediterranean flagship and deployed during the Indonesia-Malaysia Confrontation. Hosting the Wilson-Smith talks on Rhodesia also demonstrated the diplomatic and command roles that a cruiser could still perform even when its combat concept was already becoming obsolete.
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Tiger served as an interim air-defense cruiser
Tiger's long-delayed completion produced a fleet placeholder whose automatic weapons, manpower demands, and diplomatic duties revealed the limits of the concept.