NATO Frigate Replacement 90 supplies the requirements background to the Daring class. Discussions may have begun as early as March 1977, although the first pre-feasibility studies were ordered around 1981. The project settled on a roughly 5,500-ton specialist frigate with 48 air-defence missiles. The Flight I Arleigh Burke comparison uses a 96-cell figure and a broader mission set without twice the size, cost, or crew burden. Type 42 experience and the Falklands War made the smaller missile magazine particularly difficult for the Royal Navy to accept.
Chapter · 0:00-5:04
NFR-90 and the magazine-depth problem
The Type 45 story starts with NFR-90, the Arleigh Burke comparison, and Royal Navy concern that a 48-missile air-defense magazine was too shallow for Cold War escort work.