The fast battleships and , then under design in 1931, would be able to sustain a speed of , equal to the sustained speed achieved by the s, although the believed that a margin of was necessary when escorting the battlefleet. It thus formulated a requirement for a destroyer capable of . A preliminary design, displacing about and armed with two twin-gun turrets, was developed the following year, but was too small to accommodate the propulsion machinery necessary to achieve the intended speed. As the detailed design was prepared over the next two years, the "Le Hardi"s were enlarged and given extra guns to counter the large destroyers of the Italian and Japanese es. Now significantly larger and faster than the "L'Adroit"s, the "Le Hardi"-class design was approved on 10 August 1934.