Would missile conversions have been better than turning the Tiger class into helicopter cruisers?
Short answerThey could have been powerful air-defence and gunfire-support ships, but at a very high manpower cost.
NotesReplacing a forward three-inch mounting with Sea Dart and adding short-range missiles could have produced strong area and point defence while retaining six-inch gunfire. Such ships would be useful in the Falklands and Cold War convoy operations, but their crew requirement of roughly a thousand would remain a severe cost. The concept combines integrated radar, area defence, local defence, and naval gunfire support in a single cruiser. Its attraction therefore lay in versatility, while its weakness was the personnel burden of sustaining an older hull and equipment suite through a manpower-constrained era.