The limits of importing an allied destroyer design

France was learning from wartime operations but lacked the capacity to turn those lessons into a new destroyer of its own. It also had to accept an available foreign design rather than send its own design abroad for construction. British yards were already committed to Royal Navy demand and could offer older units. France regarded the turn to Japan as buying from Britain's subcontractor. Italy was considered as another supplier, with proximity offering the prospect of closer supervision. In Japan, France could send only a small number of officers, and work was spread across too many yards for close oversight. The resulting ships were near copies of Japan's Kaba class, with only modest changes for French service. They served the French Navy for roughly two decades, but their machinery, layout, and wartime thinking came from Japanese experience.