An Italian carrier program might have provoked a matching French response. The proposed design lineage runs from lessons taken from Bearn into Graf Zeppelin and then from the German carrier into the Italian Aquila. That chain could have produced rival Mediterranean carriers sharing some of the same inherited assumptions and compromises. France faced less immediate pressure to build carriers because its most likely regional opponent also lacked an operational carrier arm.
Notable Point · 2:19:10-2:20:03
An Italian carrier might have forced a French response
The absence of an Italian carrier reduced competitive pressure on France inside the Mediterranean.