By the mid-1950s, the French Marine Nationale
decisively decommissioned eight of its nine cruisers,
which had been in service since the pre-war era.
Cruiser Jeanne d'Arc, which remained in service up until 1964, was a training ship.
Everything seemed clear—
large artillery ships were no longer needed
and had run their course for good.
But in reality, no one intended to forgo the development of cruisers.
It even turned out to be quite the opposite...
According to development plans of the French Navy composed in 1946–1947,
two or three aircraft carrier task forces were to be established.
To ensure battle stability, they were to include new cruisers.
By 1960, French admirals
wanted to have six artillery ships of this class
and as many specialized AA defense cruisers.
However, the French budget of the post-war decades
allowed only for two new AA defense cruisers to be added to the fleet.
The first of the lineage, De Grasse,
built in the hull of a ship that began construction in 1939,
was commissioned in 1956.
The second ship, which was laid down in Brest in 1954,
was designed taking into account the gained experience.
She was named after Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who served as First Minister of State
under the rule of the Sun King, Louis XIV,
and gave the French Navy its maritime power.
She became the last classic cruiser.
The ship entered service in 1959.
Its hull was designed with state-of-the-art, highly effective propulsion—
much more powerful than that of predecessors, yet smaller in size.
The cruiser also had a far greater cruising range
for escorting aircraft carriers in the ocean
than past ships of this class, all with no loss in speed characteristics.
Then, compared to De Grasse, Colbert had lesser displacement
but carried the same artillery armament;
her main battery comprised eight twin turret mounts
with 127 mm 1948 model dual-purpose guns.
They were designed in France for new ships based on 130 mm guns
of the most powerful pre-war Le Hardi-class destroyers
but adjusted for the standard U.S. and NATO ammo caliber.
Close-range AA defenses consisted of
ten coupled 57 mm automatic Bofors guns of the 1951 model.
The French designed their mounts
specifically for the state-of-the-art Swedish AA guns.
Meanwhile, all the cruiser's varied and numerous radar
and radio technical means were produced exclusively in France.
The hardware allowed controlling the aircraft carrier task force
and coordinating landing operations from the ship's Combat Information Center.
In the 1960s, Colbert primarily served
as the flagship of the French Navy's Mediterranean Squadron.
In 1970–1972, the ship underwent a major modernization
and was reshaped to carry anti-ship and anti-air missiles;
her artillery guns and radar were also replaced.
The missile cruiser was decommissioned in 1991,
and until 2006, she served as a museum ship in Bordeaux.
Later, Colbert was sent for mothballing due to her high upkeep
to then be scrapped in 2016.
On the high seas of World of Warships, Colbert is a special French Tier X cruiser.