Why Alsace required more than a new design

The facilities already available shaped the preceding French battleships as much as tactical preference did. Dunkerque, Richelieu, and their derivatives were attempts to extract combat power from an underfunded physical base. Alsace required new graving docks and upgrades to existing dry docks, making infrastructure part of the combat-power decision. This helps explain why an industrially capable country could still fall behind a more consistently funded rival.