This was the first conflict where surface warships of the same design have been on opposite sides since World War II, when four Flower-class corvettes built for France in 1939 were taken over by the Kriegsmarine in 1940.

One Argentine Navy ship (Hércules) remains in service, the other vessel (Santísima Trinidad) sank whilst alongside in Puerto Belgrano Naval Base in early 2013.

To cut costs, the first two batches had 47 feet removed from the bow sections forward of the bridge, and the beam-to-length ratio was proportionally reduced.

Two Phalanx Mk 15 close-in weapon systems (CIWS) were fitted to British Type 42s after the loss of Sheffield to an Exocet missile in 1982.

As this provided a prominent target for then-new infrared homing missiles, only Sheffield and both the Argentinian Hércules and Santísima Trinidad had these.

This class was originally conceived to be a stopper for long-range strategic bombers from the former Soviet Long Range Aviation/A-VMF and as area defence for carrier battle groups.

The Type 42 provided a capable long-range defence against Argentine air force assets, scoring three confirmed kills.

However, Sheffield was hit and disabled by a long-range first-generation air-to-surface missile (Exocet) and sank six days later, Coventry was sunk by conventional iron bombs, and Glasgow was disabled by a single bomb that passed straight through her aft engine room without exploding; an extensive rethink was conducted and future iterations were adopted.

"[23] In February 1998, the Minister of State for Defence, Dr Reid said: "Type 42 destroyers achieved approximately 84 to 86 per cent average availability for operational service in each of the last five years.

She was originally fitted with four single Exocet missile launchers, two on either side of the funnel facing forward but these were removed during refit.

[28] The other Argentine vessel, Santísima Trinidad, capsized and sank alongside her berth at Puerto Belgrano on 22 January 2013, reportedly as a result of poor maintenance and negligence leading to a burst seawater main and catastrophic flooding.

[33] Prior to her demise, Santísima Trinidad was extensively cannibalised for spare parts for her more active sister ship.

Initially, the UK sought to procure replacements first in collaboration with seven other NATO nations under the NFR-90 project and then with France and Italy through the Horizon CNGF programme.

The Type 42 class suffered from cramped accommodation, a problem for crew safety and comfort, and also when finding space for upgrades.