Why the Courbet class already looked behind the race

The Courbet class shows the cost of entering the dreadnought race late without making a compensating leap in design. France had seen both Cuniberti's all-big-gun proposal and nearly five years of British dreadnought service before committing to the class. Its twelve 12-inch guns can put ten on a broadside, but the wing-turret layout still resembles a pre-dreadnought and arrived as British contemporaries moved to 13.5-inch weapons. Twenty-four Niclausse boilers and two turbine sets produced roughly 27,600 shaft horsepower, while the class could make about 21 knots. The design could fight earlier dreadnoughts, yet the navies France actually faced were already building stronger contemporaries.