These ships were designed to provide anti-aircraft escorts to convoys and light fleet aircraft carriers of the Sydney and Virkant classes and act as light destroyers on detached duties; as a result they were not built for fleet carrier task force speed —28 knots for the Victorious and Audacious classes and made only 24 knots (44 km/h).

The Leopard class was also fitted with an early type of hydraulic stabiliser system consisting of two fins that could be extended outside the main hull, to port and starboard, from a compartment between the two engine rooms.

During testing every three months at sea, the ship could be easily driven into a 20°+ roll from the manual control on the bridge.

Within a few years of the Type 41's introduction in the late 1950s they were regarded as obsolete for their intended function as anti-aircraft convoy escorts.

Innovative additions of STAAG ("Stabilised Tachymetric Anti-Aircraft Gun"), CIWS mount, and replacement of the experimental version of the fast rotating 992 target indicators with the slower standard 993 were all abandoned.