Armament would consist of the French 100mm Modéle 1933 AA guns in twin turrets and 40mm Bofors with 20mm Oerlikon as light AA defence. Proposal would be feasible as the aft part of the ship is still not complete, though there would be stability issues to be solved having large weight on the front and the tall superstructure on the right side. Isn't that a little backwards? The French proposal of 1940 shortly before the Fall of France to finish her as a hybrid battleship and aircraft carrier capital ship to provide not only fire support for the Marine Nationale but aircraft projection or aerial fleet defence. Ultimately Jean Bart was finished as a command battleship in France after the war. The USN liked the idea on principle, but ultimately decided to do nothing with Jean Bart given that it would have been difficult to to build to French standards. She would have been intended to serve an escort vessel, namely to protect other battleship's and carrier's. Also, unlike other hybrid designs, this had a very specific role in mind. Unlike other CV/BB hybrids this Jean Bart concept did not suffer and loss of the battleship's primary armament, thanks to the Richelieu class's all forward facing armament scheme. So with the Jean Bart recently released into wows, here is a look at what Jean Bart could have been.Īfter the US navy (with whom the French Navy was attached to at the time) redlighted a full carrier conversion(there were enough of the Essex-class in the pipes and it was felt removing the battleships guns would be wasteful), the French came up with this aircraft carrier hybrid.

World of warships jean bart camouflage