Why Type 82 destroyers might replace the Type 42s

Which planned postwar Royal Navy design would be worth building if carriers were excluded?

He would build roughly eighteen Type 82 or Bristol-class destroyers instead of the Type 42 class.

The preferred design is the Bristol class, built in numbers, about eighteen ships, in place of the smaller Type 42s. That choice preserves the larger Type 82 concept after the carrier program for which it was designed disappeared. HMS Bristol would cease to be a lone survivor and become the lead example of a fleet-wide escort class. The counterfactual asks whether retaining fuller capability at greater unit cost would have served the postwar Royal Navy better than buying the more austere Type 42 in quantity.