The Tribals belonged to a long increase in destroyer size and capability. By pre-First World War standards, their size and firepower approached what Jackie Fisher might have wanted from a scout cruiser. In later vocabulary they also resemble a large, high-capability frigate. The Royal Navy still expected them to serve as front-line destroyers, showing how a familiar class label can persist while the ships carrying it change dramatically.
Notable Point · 19:54-20:21
When destroyers grew into scout-cruiser roles
Interwar destroyer growth gave the Tribal class the size and firepower earlier planners associated with scout cruisers or later frigates.