Outside their primary AAW role, the Type 45s have flag-facilities to lead a task-force and are also periodically deployed to carry out counter-piracy, counter-drug trafficking, maritime security and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief missions.
It was mentioned again the same year in the context of the government's National Shipbuilding Strategy and associated comments regarding planned investments in future naval platforms.
According to The National Interest, if previous Royal Navy conventions are adhered to, the "8X" designation suggests the ship will be a large, multi-role fleet escort, akin to the sole Type 82 destroyer, HMS Bristol (in commission from 1973 to 1991).
The latter was a large, multi-role destroyer with dimensions approaching those of a World War II light cruiser, designed and built to escort the Royal Navy's aborted CVA-01 class of fleet aircraft carrier.
[19] The article's author claimed the image had been sourced from an internal BAE Systems presentation titled, "Fire Safety and Damage Control in Warship Design - Now and into the future" and was preliminary.
[19][12][20] The presence of the CEAFAR corresponds with reports from 2018 that the UK had begun feasibility studies for the system to be applied to future British warships.
[21][20] A new large cruiser style design would likely be an expensive option for the programme, but would seemingly be more than capable of meeting any expected specifications for the Type 83, with plenty of space and weight available for both a high-end sensor suite and a large missile capacity comparable to other foreign high-end air-warfare destroyer/cruiser designs such as the PLAN's Type 055 or the USN's upcoming DDG(X), both in 10,000+ tonne range.
The design would also aim to focus on survivability, with the crew centred in an heavily armoured habitable core and the outer compartments filled with inert gas, leaving damage control tasks to automated systems.