in the late 1940s, the National Navy considered the possibility of equipping itself with frigates more or less derived from the escort destroyers of the "Canon" class of the United States and the Netherlands, fourteen of which were equipped by the French Navy. An earlier proposal showed a unit fitted with a flat-deck hull like the US-DE types, but with some elements inspired by the British 'River' type, six of which were also used by our national fleet. The original 1948 proposal called for armament consisting of a 105mm gun in the rear, two quadruple-mounted 40mm guns, quickly replaced by two twin 57mm Bofor open-air guns, four 20mm Oerlikon guns, one or two wake grenade launchers with a cut-out of the front superstructure, which provides the possibility of installing triple installations of torpedo tubes in the future. Ultimately, a configuration was adopted for three twin 57mm/60 ACAD 1951 rocket launchers under the turrets, two 20mm Oerlikon, four triple 550mm torpedo tubes and a six-stage 375mm Bofors Mle 54 rocket launcher. . In 1949, two units were ordered, C 1 and C 2, followed by C 3 and C4.