In service, the "Leopard" class were used mainly as patrol frigates, notably on the South American station, where their long range and impressive destroyer-like appearance were particularly advantageous. Operating out of Simonstown in South Africa, they in part replaced the "Dido"-class cruisers HMS "Euralyus" and "Cleopatra" usually deployed on these duties during 1946-1954. It was hoped a pair of Type 41 gunships with four twin-4.5" guns between them would be adequate to deter a single Russian "Sverdlov" cruiser, which British Naval Intelligence saw as having been in part conceived of to threaten the traditional trade from Buenos Aires to England. Later they were extensively used in the Far East during the 1963–68 confrontation with Indonesia over Borneo and Malaysia, for which all-gun-armed Type 41s were again well suited. In the 1970s they saw service on Cod War duties.