 Joffre-class fleet carrier
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Joffre class |
| Builders | Ateliers et Chantiers de Saint-Nazaire Penhoët, Saint-Nazaire |
| Operators |  French Navy |
| Preceded by | Béarn |
| Succeeded by | Clemenceau class |
| Built | 1938–1940 |
| Planned | 2 |
| Cancelled | 2 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Aircraft carrier |
| Displacement | |
| Length | 236 m (774 ft 3 in) |
| Beam | 24.6 m (80 ft 9 in) (waterline) |
| Draft | 6.6 m (21 ft 8 in) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 shafts; 2 geared steam turbines |
| Speed | 33.5 knots (62.0 km/h; 38.6 mph) |
| Range | 7,000 nmi (13,000 km; 8,100 mi) at 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph) |
| Complement | 1,250 |
| Armament |
|
| Armor |
|
| Aircraft carried | 40 |
The Joffre class consisted of a pair of aircraft carriers ordered by the Marine Nationale (French Navy) prior to World War II. The Navy had commissioned an experimental carrier in 1927, but it was slow and obsolete by the mid-1930s. Support for naval aviation in the navy was weak during this time as it had lost control of its aircraft, its training and their development to the new Air Ministry when it formed in 1928 and did not regain full control until 1936. Traditionalists among the naval leadership had begun a battleship building program in the early 1930s to counter German ships that were suitable for commerce raiding and carriers were deemed useful to hunt them down, especially once the Germans began building a carrier of their own in 1936.
One ship was laid down in 1938, but was not launched before all work was cancelled after the Armistice of 22 June 1940. The incomplete hull of Joffre was subsequently scrapped.