They were built as part of the War Emergency Programme, based on the hull and machinery of the pre-war J class, incorporating whatever advances in armament and naval radar were available at the time.

All ships used the Fuze Keeping Clock High Angle Fire Control Computer.

[9] Late delivery of the Mk VI directors delayed completion such that all but one of the "Ch"s, "Co"s or "Cr"s entered service after the end of the Second World War.

Caprice was the last destroyer built for the Royal Navy to be fitted with the ubiquitous quadruple QF 2 pounder "pom-pom" mounting Mark VII.

The "Ca" flotilla were reconstructed in the late 1950s and early 1960s to be modernised for anti-submarine warfare and to serve as fast fleet escorts.

[12][13] The remaining "Ch", "Co" and Cr" ships in the Royal Navy were given a less extensive modernisation, with one 4.5 in gun being replaced by twin Squids, modified fire control and a close in anti aircraft armament of 1 twin and four single Bofors guns.

[14][15] The class were all fitted with two Admiralty 3-drum boilers with a pressure of 300 pounds per square inch (2,100 kPa) at 630 °F (332 °C).

At the end of the war in Europe the flotilla was transferred to the East Indies Fleet and the ships arrived on station between August and November 1945, too late to see service against Japan.

Two ships of this putative flotilla, the last of the 26 "Intermediate"-type destroyers authorised under the 1942 Programme, were ordered on 3 February 1942 from White.