All the ships were built in Japan as an export version of the Kaba class, and were named after ethnic groups within the French Empire at the time.

The French Navy ordered the Arabe-class ships from Japan as it was in desperate need of additional destroyers and there was no capacity to build more in France, Great Britain or the United States.

The engines were designed to produce 10,000 metric horsepower (7,400 kW; 9,900 shp), which would propel the ships at 29 knots (54 km/h; 33 mph).

[5] The main armament of the Arabe-class ships was a single Type 41 12-centimeter (4.7 in) gun, mounted before the bridge on the forecastle.

Their secondary armament consisted of four Type 41 76-millimeter (3.0 in) guns in single mounts; two of these were positioned abreast the middle funnel and the others were on the centerline further aft.