Viribus Unitis Preliminary Project I

The history of the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy's first and only Dreadnought battleships are a rather interesting and intriguing one!

The first formal meeting of new battleships for the Austro-Hungarian Navy was held on May 7th, 1908 by the MTK (Marinetechnische Komitee - Naval Technical Committee), Pola / Vienna the meeting was led by Rudolf von Montecuccoli degli Erri, and the official design contest was issued on July 6th, 1908 with the following requirements:
Displacement up to 20,000 tons,
8x 30,5cm Main Guns all on the centreline,
19 and 10cm medium and light guns,
armour belt of 230mm at the waterline and 250mm thickness of the barbettes.

Two shipyards were invited to make design studies based on these requirements:
Ganz-Danubius (Ganz és Társa-Danubius Villamossági-, Gép-, Waggon- és Hajógyár Rt. - Ganz and Partner-Danubius Electrical- Machine-, Wagon- and Shipbuilding Co.), Fiume/Budapest and STT (Stabilimento Tecnico Triestone), Trieste.
Ganz-Danubius refused the invitation as it could not build such large warships and this led the automatic acceptance by STT where the Naval Engineer, Siegfried Popper was working in cooperation. Siegfried Popper was recently retired from the post of the Naval Engineering Office, according to many the whole application was intended exactly for him to get the job of designing the new battleships, this was supported by the fact that the ships construction began well before the entire design contest expired in 1910.

Data on the design:
Design date: 1909/10
Dimensions: 151,5 (wl) x 26 x 8,6m
Displacement: 20.000tons (standard)
Engines: 25.000shp Steam Turbines, 4 shafts
Speed: 38km/h (20,5knots)
Armour: 48mm Deck, 230mm Belt
Armaments:
4x2 30,5cm/50 Skoda K09 Cannons,
10x1 19cm/50 Skoda K09 Casemated Guns,
20x1 10cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
2x1 7cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
4x1 53cm Torpedoes