Modification
The class were something of an oddity in the post-war Royal Navy, and did not figure in any of the plans for the fleet of the future. They were laid up by 1956, but there emerged a need for fast fleet Aircraft Direction (A/D) ships to accompany the carrier strike force and act as radar pickets, directing fighter cover. The Battle class were being modified for this role, but as a stop-gap, the Weapons were given a more limited conversion. This involved adding a large mainmast amidships for the Radar Type 965 with an AKE-1 "single bedstead" antenna array, with the torpedo tubes replaced by radar offices. The director was replaced with a lighter MRS-8 pattern, possibly to lower topweight associated with the new radar, and all ships had the squids mounted aft and the guns mounted forward. They lacked specialised height finding and aircraft direction radar sets that the Battles possessed, and so were rapidly superseded and returned to reserve.
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