Contre-torpilleurs in task-group doctrine

French interwar planning built around mixed task groups of capital ships, cruisers, and destroyers. In the British planning rationale outlined here, only a war with the United States would require the whole fleet. Other wars called for mixed formations, each needing enough cruisers to support it. France faced the same shortage and turned earlier to large, fast destroyers for scouting and surface combat. These contre-torpilleurs exceeded 2,000 tons standard displacement in the 1920s, before the British Tribal class. Later French designs were intended to defeat small Italian Condottieri-type cruisers and scouts, making their absence from Allied Mediterranean operations especially significant.