The designs were continually modified in order to find a suitable arrangement. They started as early as 1953 with a mid-sized cruiser of carrying 60 to 90 missiles and a crew of 900. Admiral Ralph Edwards pointed out it would be more useful to have a larger number of small ships with 10 to 20 missiles than one larger one, but attempts to design such a ship resulted in one with room for the weapons but not the crew needed to operate them. In May 1955 a wide variety of plans for designs between the two extremes were compared, ranging from 9,850 tons down to 4,550. After continual comparison and revision, these plans finally gelled around what became the County-class destroyer.