Heller Escorteurs Rapides E 50

In the late 1940s, the national navy considered equipping itself with escort ships that were more or less derived from the US-DE Cannon-class escort destroyers, of which the French navy owned 14 units. The preliminary design featured a hull of the flush-deck type, similar to the US-DE, although certain elements were inspired by the British "River" type, of which six units were also in service with the French national navy. The original project from 1948 included armament consisting of a 105-mm gun, two quadruple 40-mm mounts, which were quickly replaced by two twin Bofors 57-mm guns with an open breech, four 20-mm Oerlikon guns, one or two ship mortars with a cutout in the superstructure to allow for the later installation of torpedo tube triple mounts. Additionally, the final configuration featured three 57-mm twin turret mounts/60 ACAD remote controls model 1952, two 20-mm Oerlikon guns, four 550-mm torpedo tube triple mounts, and a Bofors Mle 54 six-barrel rocket launcher of 375 mm. In 1949, two ships, C 1 and C 2, were ordered, quickly followed by C 3 and C 4.