Viribus Unitis Preliminary Project III

On April 16, STT was interested in receiving plans. Although the plans included mainly 30,5cm L/50 calibre cannons, the 30,5cm L/45 calibre ones were too included. Skoda, who produced the cannons, had problems with the development of a longer calibre cannon, so the shipyard of Trieste redesigned the plans of the VI and VII Projects with L/45 calibre main guns. On April 20, MTK asked STT to produce another 12 gun in 6 turrets armed design which was completed on the 27th in 2 versions. Shortly thereafter, on May 5th, at Montecuccoli's personal request, STT Trieste prepared another 12 gun L/45 calibre main gun armed design in 4 triple turrets which became Project VIII and which was used as a basis for the final version.
This last project was the first to use triple turrets, with the idea was likely to emerge in designers' minds in January that year, as it turned out that the Italians wanted to equip their new battleships (Dante Alighieri) with such turrets. In the spring of 1909, the Navy was allowed to check the plans of the newest German battleships then under construction (Kaiser class).
With this task, the secretary of Montecuccoli, Frigate Captain Alfred von Koudelka, was sent to Berlin on the evening of 29th April. Koudelka was personally greeted by none other then Grand Admiral Alfred Peter Friedrich von Tirpitz, who with surprising openness even presented with German plans and commented on the Austrian plans taken by Koudelka. Tirpitz objected in particular to the thin belt armour and insufficient torpedo protection on the Austrian plans.

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:
5x2 30,5cm/50 Skoda K09 Cannons,
10x1 15cm/50 Skoda K10 Casemated Guns,
14x1 10cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
3x1 7cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
4x1 53cm Torpedoes