“The Ikara took up a lot of space, meaning that ships really had to be built around the system – just look at the modified Leander class!”

Just look at the Ikara in the Aussie “Roths-anders” & Brizilian Nitiero (sp?)… much smaller installation for the same number of UAVs… even in the “Perth” class DDGs they had 2 launchers & lots of “missiles”. The Aussie frigates were an upgrade, but they didn’t over-build the launcher area like the Brits did.