Two carriers competed with wholesale fleet recapitalization

France intended to build two Joffre-class carriers within its available treaty tonnage. The programme competed for limited yard space while the navy tried to replace every existing capital ship with a newer one. Infrastructure and supply constraints narrowed what could be built even as French planners recognized that another war was approaching. Cooperation among political leaders, professionals, and the military remained difficult amid fractious postwar politics. That institutional strain was tied to the enormous losses and multigenerational trauma France had suffered in the First World War. Joffre's construction challenge was therefore part of a national rearmament problem rather than an isolated ship-design decision.