The Khmer Admiralty decided that a Dreadnought cruiser (designation changed to Battlecruiser 1912) would be of use to chase down and either capture or destroy both tariff dodgers and pirates. Khmer saw them both as being legitimate targets for destruction. Khmer were lucky in that they were not taken in by the "Invincible Hoax" with the RN publicising the Invincible would be armed with 9.2" guns when in actual fact their main armament was 12" weapons. How did Khmer avoid the hoax? when so many other countries got taken in? Khmer had delayed laying down the Cobra till 1910 with the Invincible being completed in 1908 and commissioned in 1909, they were well aware of the 12" armament and armed the Cobra appropriately.
The Cobra was an enlarged Xiaowu class ship, with the extra size being used to mount a fifth twin 12". All of the turrets were mounted inline and gave the ship a ten gun broadside. One of the more powerful 12" battlecruisers. The French were not really interested in building battlecruisers, and Khmer was on its own for the design and building of the ship.
The Cobra spent its First World War in the Indian Ocean chasing German merchant raiders. While it was nominally Flagship of a cruiser squadron, the squadron was normally broken up into patrol areas and only brought together when it was deemed necessary to refuel and provision. This allowed the Admiral aboard the Cobra to keep control of the squadron and pass on his squadron orders. To do this at sea let the German raiders know that there were warships nearby and allowed them to evade contact. The squadron was transferred to the Mediterranean and spent 1917 and 1918 anchored off Imbros with short periods of action, supporting the Khmer Troops in the Lebanon. At wars end the squadron assisted in transporting the same Khmer troops back to Khmer.
The Cobra was always to get a complete rebuilding during the mid 1930's. It was too good a cruiser Squadron Flagship to be left behind in its original state. All the superstructure from 'B' to 'X' turrets was removed and replaced with updated command and control equipment. The machinery was updated with a more powerful set to allow the ship to keep up with the more modern cruisers. While the deck was up, a new armoured deck of 5" was fitted. Secondary and tertiary AA armaments were added with the old 5.5" and 75mm being removed.
