Just to dust off this old thread, I thought I’d take a fresh look at it.

As I see it, as alluded to in Sealord’s post, the best bet for taking out the mythical Sverdlov massed fleet lies with the nuclear anti-shipping missile. It is probably the only realistic way to do it in those days.

For this role, I would propose that the best bet would probably have been to build a series of new helicopter cruisers, along the same lines as the Italian Vittorio Veneto. These would use a British modified version of the Tartar/Terrier missile system; which frankly beats the heck out of the daft Sea Slug, which was incapable of being updated, and was out of date by the time the ships were in full service!). There would hopefully then be an air-launched version, much like the AGM-78 Standard ARM, but as an anti-shipping missile. There would be nuclear and conventional versions, and this could have yielded something not too disimilar to the American SRAM for land-based use. This way, a basically standard (pardon the pun) missile can be used for ship-based anti-air and anti-ship, and air-launched anti-ship and anti-radar, as well as give a good tactical nuclear missile.

The cruisers would then form an important part of both ASW and carrier groups, carrying advanced AAW systems, and also embarking a good number of ASW helicopters. An ASW group of one cruiser and two frigates would be workable, and enable eight Sea Kings (six on the cruiser, one each on the frigates). The carrier groups would have one cruiser, two smaller destroyers, and a pair of frigates (plus the carrier of course!).