France must answer Italian fast capital ships

The separate battlecruiser category gives France the same formal freedom that Italy can exploit with the Caracciolo hulls. A completed pair of Italian fast capital ships would change the Mediterranean balance regardless of what the treaty called them. France could adapt an existing design, produce a new answer, or accept an increasingly unfavorable regional force structure. The exact French design remains open because every national choice would reshape the next one. A treaty concession intended for Dominion flagships could therefore generate a reciprocal European procurement cycle.