The Le Fantasque class of six large, very fast destroyers was ordered under the French naval programme of 1930.

The Le Fantasque-class ships were designed to counter the fast Italian Condottieri-class light cruisers, and one member of the class, Le Terrible, exceeded 45 knots (83 km/h; 52 mph) during trials to set a world record for a conventionally-hulled ship.

The crew of the Le Fantasque class consisted of 11 officers and 221 crewmen in peacetime and the number of the latter increasing to 254 in wartime.

The turbines were designed to produce 74,000 metric horsepower (54,000 kW; 73,000 shp) which was intended give the ships a speed of 37 knots (69 km/h; 43 mph).

During their sea trials, each of the ships greatly exceeded their designed speed, ranging from 41.4 to 45.1 knots (76.7 to 83.5 km/h; 47.6 to 51.9 mph) from 94,353 to 98,529 PS (69,397 to 72,468 kW; 93,062 to 97,181 shp).

A pair of 1-meter (3 ft 3 in) OPL Mle J.1930 high-angle stereoscopic rangefinders were mounted on the superstructure amidships to control the anti-aircraft guns.

[11] In late 1936 the Mle 1929 computers were upgraded and the high-angle rangefinders amidships were replaced by 1.5-meter (4 ft 11 in) OPL J4.1935 models during 1937.

Beginning in September the ships still in French hands were equipped with one or two Browning 13.2-millimeter anti-aircraft machine guns mounted on the quarterdeck.

Based on the British Type 128 Asdic system, they could not be installed until the hull was modified to accommodate the required flexible underwater dome which was scheduled for the following year.

The Americans installed SA early-warning, SF surface-search and a British Type 285 fire-control radar, removed her aft torpedo tubes to save weight and converted some boiler feedwater tanks to fuel oil to improve her range.

After repairing damage suffered during the Naval Battle of Casablanca in November 1942 Le Malin followed her sisters to the United States and was similarly refitted.