Fascist Italy drove a direct Mediterranean construction competition in capital ships, cruisers, and destroyers. Japan presented a geographically closer threat to French Indochina but one that France expected to confront in coalition. Those pressures encouraged useful ships, yet also pulled a politically unstable procurement system in different directions. Italy demanded an immediately balanced regional fleet, while a Japanese war rewarded fast capital ships and cruisers able to add weight to British and American operations far from France.
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Italian and Japanese pressure on French force planning
Mussolini's balanced fleet and Japanese expansion toward Indochina created different but simultaneous demands on French naval policy.