I see most of these requirements as not required. Inspection and recon shouldn't be done with small UAV at close range. That is far too late. Artillery spotting UAV can be done with a separate ship. There is no need to put that on a Frigate or Destroyer.
Well, I basically named modern trends. You may check all frigates with basic design younger than ~2010 -
all of them pay a lot of attention to off-board platforms.
Frigate, in modern navies, is a standard multi-role combatant. So placing this mission(which includes some of the most common and mundane tasks for a modern warship) on it is simply logical, for many navies - there is no alternative (they are their only warships large enough and ranged enough to do it).
For PLAN... 052Ds can't(no space, not enough growth potential to add it), 055s are clearly too important for the purpose, 054As can't.
056As, curiously, can to some degree(as they are relatively new) - but they're small and coastal.
Thus hypothetical 054B is an obvious candidate.
Remember that these USVs and USuVs are relatively autonomous. Personally I think the next generation of ships should have a modular mission bay incorporated
USVs aren't - i.e. either they're
completely autonomous(and thus do their own stuff), or there is a big problem with their underwanter communication and navigation. Same is true for flying craft (they need fuel and rearming)
Yes, 'mission bay' is close to the truth for those spaces.
for those operations, a dicicated anti mine ship with 052d and 054a escort would be much better.
Both are fine. But the point is, such functions are now becoming necessary literally everywhere - from peacetime inspection of suspected pirate ship to major high seas engagement.
It's prudent to fit it on a suitable combatant. FREMM, Type 26, Constellation etc all fit in.
Smaller/light frigates (say, Mogami, 20386) follow the same pattern, too.
