Where modern frigates fit in treaty-era classifications

What would modern European destroyers and frigates be called under the treaty system?

Most would be light cruisers: they exceed traditional destroyer displacement but remain below 10,000 tons and lack eight-inch armament.

The answer uses treaty thresholds rather than modern labels. Vessels around 6,000 tons and below the 10,000-ton cruiser limit would be treated as light cruisers if they lacked eight-inch guns, regardless of their present-day designation. The same logic places roughly 9,000-ton Type 26 variants in the light-cruiser category because of their gun calibre. A ship above 10,000 tons would begin to consume capital-ship allowance under the interwar rules, making a very large design such as Zumwalt anomalous. Classification follows the legal system and strategic purpose of its era, not a timeless relationship between the words frigate, destroyer, and cruiser.