Yonne-class carrier

Class overview
Operators:	Sieuxerr
Preceded by:	Bourgogne Bearn-class
Succeeded by:	Painlevé-class
Built:	1942-1952
In service:	1946-1999
Planned:	6
Completed:	2
Cancelled:	4
Retired:	2
General characteristics
Type:	Aircraft carrier
Displacement:	26,000 t
Length:	240 m
Beam:	37 m
Draught:	8.7 m
Propulsion:	100,000 kW 8 × boilers 4 × propellers 2 × rudders
Speed:	31 knots (57 km/h)
Range:	13,000 nm (24,000 km)
Complement:	2,000
Armament:	Yonne as commissioned: 4 × twin 130 mm dual-purpose guns 8 × twin 37 mm ACAD AA gun 16 × triple 25 mm AA guns Savoie as commissioned: 4 × twin 130 mm dual-purpose guns 4 × single 100 mm dual-purpose guns 8 × twin 57mm AA gun
Armor:	Belt: 100 mm (3.9 in) Deck: 60 mm (2.4 in) Gun turrets: 20 mm (0.79 in)
Aircraft carried:	70 aircraft comprised of: (Early) 20 × Dewoitine D.582 35 × F4U Corsair 15 × Bréguet 700
Aviation facilities:	2 catapults, 2 lifts

The Yonne-class carriers were a series of aircraft carriers used by the Sieuxerrian Navy. They were built in the later years of the Pan-Septentrion War and commissioned in the years after. They were the first purpose-designed carriers used by the Sieuxerrian Navy, with the previous carriers having been converted from battleships and battlecruisers. Both ships would undergo a number of refits and modernizations over their period of service and while in the same class with a number of similiarities, experiences from one ship influenced the other during such modernizations and refits. The Yonne-class would act as lighter alternatives and escorts to the larger and later Painlevé-class fleet carriers.

Background

In the late-1920s and early 1930s, the Sieuxerrian Navy began to design a purpose-designed aircraft carrier to replace the carrier Bourgogne and the Bearn-class carriers, the ships all being converted from capital ships in the wake of the signing of the Ten-Power Treaty. The invasion of Sieuxerr by the Casaterran Axis in 1937 put an end to any construction of an aircraft carrier, but designing was still allowed. Combat use of the Sieuxerrian and other allied carriers during the war influenced the design heavily, with new advancements in anti-aircraft warfare and protection rapidly developing as the war progressed.

With the ground campaign in Casaterra having shifted into Sieuxerr's favor, and with the removal of the Bourgogne from active service, plans for up to six new large carriers was authorized.