The Richelieu class battleships were the last and largest battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

s of the French Navy

French Navy

The French Navy, officially the Marine nationale and often called La Royale is the maritime arm of the French military. It includes a full range of fighting vessels, from patrol boats to a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and 10 nuclear-powered submarines, four of which are capable of launching...

, staying in service into the 1960s. They still remain to this day the largest warships ever built by France. Designed in the 1930s to counter of threat of the Italian Vittorio Veneto class battleships, the Richelieu class were essentially scaled-up versions of the preceding Dunkerque class

Dunkerque class battleship

The Dunkerque class was a new type of warship of the French Navy built during the 1930s, labeled as 'fast battleships'. Not as large as other contemporary battleships, they were designed to counter the threat of the German pocket battleships of the Deutschland class. They had a specific main...

, featuring a main armament of eight 380 mm guns in two quadruple turrets in forward superfiring positions.

Four Richelieu class ships, of three different subclasses, were laid down over the course of three naval construction programs, in 1935, 1936, and 1938.