Project V:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Viribus-Unitis-Preliminary-Project-V-848837149[/URL]
Project V re-introduced the wing turrets into the series for a brief time making a romboid arrangement with superfiring turrets at the ends while these designs still provided the same 10 gun broadside of the previous versions despite adding a 6th turret to the hull, end on fire was increased by a 1/3rd on both directions from 4 to 6 guns. The two sub variants a and b shows that at this time there were doubts of the 50 calibre 305mm cannons the Skoda developing and thus on these proposals the main artillery was reverted to the 45 calibre Cannons first used on the previous Radetzky classes and which with some improvement used on the final Viribus Unitis class battleships.
Data on the designs:
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:
6x2 30,5cm/50 Skoda K09 Cannons,
24x1 10cm/50 Skoda K10 Casemated and Shielded Guns,
4x1 7cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
4x1 53cm Torpedoes
Original sketch drawing:
i.imgur.com/miAsHD6.jpg
Project Va:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Viribus-Unitis-Preliminary-Project-Va-848837340[/URL]
On the "a" sub-variant apart from the change of the main gun calibre to /45 ones the secondary armament was increased in size to 15cm from the 10cm of the baseline version as well as quadrupled the 7cm (66mm) Anti Torpedo-Boat guns number to 16, half of them located on the turret tops.
Data on the designs:
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:
6x2 30,5cm/45 Skoda K10 Cannons,
8x1 15cm/50 Skoda K10 Casemated Guns,
16x1 7cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
4x1 53cm Torpedoes
Original sketch drawing:
i.imgur.com/wqOGTwn.jpg
Project Vb:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Viribus-Unitis-Preliminary-Project-Vb-848837345[/URL]
On the "b" sub-variant apart from the change of the main gun calibre to /45 ones the secondary armament though remained the same 10cm calibre but their number was reduced to 18 from 24 of the baseline version but like in the "a" sub variant here as well the 7cm (66mm) Anti Torpedo-Boat guns number quadrupled from 4 to to 16, half of them located on the turret tops.
Data on the designs:
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:
6x2 30,5cm/45 Skoda K10 Cannons,
18x1 10cm/50 Skoda K10 Casemated Guns,
16x1 7cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
4x1 53cm Torpedoes
Original sketch drawing:
i.imgur.com/wqOGTwn.jpg
Project VI:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Viribus-Unitis-Preliminary-Project-VI-848941706[/URL]
Similarly to the Project V variants Project VI also shows the uncertainty of the Skoda's then development 50 calibre 305mm Cannons hence reversion back to the previous 45 calibre cannons. Design wise they were a modified version of the Project IV proposal with revised secondary gun armaments and layouts.
Project VI continues the 5 turreted arrangement of the designs III and IV, but this time with uniform 15cm secondary armament but coupled with the increase number of 7cm (66mm) Anti Torpedo-Boat guns, quarter of them on turret tops. Basically an updated Project III,
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,
14x1 15cm/50 SkodaK10 Casemated Guns,
11x1 7cm/50 SkodaK10 Guns,
3x1 53cm Torpedoes
Original sketch drawing:
imgur.com/LfXM1Ia.jpeg
Project VIa:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Viribus-Unitis-Preliminary-Project-VIa-848941716[/URL]
The "a" sub versions is the same (in idea) to the Project Va version with the reduced /45 calibre main cannons but increased (even further) 7cm (66mm) Anti Torpedo-Boat guns then of the baseline project VI design to 14, with almost half of them on turret tops.
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/45 SkodaK10 Cannons,
14x1 15cm/50 SkodaK10 Casemated Guns,
14x1 7cm/50 SkodaK10 Guns,
3x1 53cm Torpedoes
Original sketch drawing:
imgur.com/LfXM1Ia.jpeg
Project VIb:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Viribus-Unitis-Preliminary-Project-VIb-848941726[/URL]
While the "a" sub variant increased the 7cm guns to 14 in total the "b" sub variant only changed the main guns calibre to /45 ones and the 15 and 7cm guns remained the same both in number and in arrangement.
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/45 SkodaK10 Cannons,
14x1 15cm/50 SkodaK10 Casemated Guns,
11x1 7cm/50 SkodaK10 Guns,
3x1 53cm Torpedoes
Original sketch drawing:
imgur.com/LfXM1Ia.jpeg
Project VII:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Viribus-Unitis-Preliminary-Project-VII-849049559[/URL]
While on project VI the secondary armament was chosen as the 15cm Skoda Guns (as was on the final version), on Project VII this armament was of a smaller calibre of 12cm Skoda guns but more numerous otherwise it was the same as the previous proposal with it's 5 centreline turrets
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:
Project VII:
5x2 30,5cm/50 Skoda K09 Cannons,
18x1 12cm/50 Skoda K09 Casemated Guns,
11x1 7cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
3x1 53cm Torpedoes
Original sketch drawing:
imgur.com/QcQYZHd.jpeg
Project VIIa:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Viribus-Unitis-Preliminary-Project-VIIa-849049576[/URL]
Project VIIa again a sub-variant of the baseline with it's shorter /45 calibre 30,5cm cannons but as usual more numerous (doubled on turret tops) 7cm (66mm) Anti Torpedo-Boat Guns.
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/45 Skoda K10 Cannons,
18x1 12cm/50 Skoda K09 Casemated Guns,
14x1 7cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
3x1 53cm Torpedoes
Original sketch drawing:
imgur.com/QcQYZHd.jpeg
Project VIII:
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.deviantart.com/tzoli/art/Viribus-Unitis-Preliminary-Project-VIII-849152332[/URL]
On June 9, 1909, the final design contest was issued under the amended terms. The proposed displacement was increased to 20.500 tons, main guns were of 30,5cm L/45 calibre ones (The the 50 calibre ones had construction errors and thus not chosen) the secondary and tertiary guns were chosen of 15 and 7cm (66mm) ones with the increased armour belt of 280mm. For propulsion steam turbines were chosen with auxiliary oil fired boilers next to the coal ones. Popper had submitted six more proposals a few weeks later (varying in tripod or polemast arrangements) and of these, the design "F" was finally selected.
In 1910, the Joint Finance Minister of the Monarchy did not support the construction of new warships, so the Navy started to build ships at its own risk.
In addition to the problems surrounding the construction costs of the ships, their names did not go smoothly either.
At first the Navy proposed SMS Tegetthoff, SMS Prinz Eugen, SMS Don Juan and SMS Hunyadi for the ships while Archduke Franz Ferdinand wished to name the 4th ship SMS Laudon, but the Hungarians did, of course, start a fierce protest, as part of the cost of the ships was provided by the Hungarian parliament, so they expected that one of the ships receive a Hungarian name. This was a common practice in the Austro-Hungarian Navy (SMS Budapest, SMS Zrínyi, SMS Árpád etc).
In the end Emperor Franz Joseph I ended the debate with an iron fist naming the ships as follows:
SMS Viribus Unitis, SMS Tegetthoff, SMS Prinz Eugen and SMS Szent István
As a sidenote, for the 4th ship the following names were proposed:
SMS Corvin Mátyás after Matthias Corvinus
SMS Szent István after St. Stpehen, first Christian king of Hungary
SMS Erzsébet Királyné after Empress Elisabeth commonly known as Sisi
Montecuccoli dictated a forced pace for the designers, as the start of construction was planned for the spring of 1910. The cause was the peaceful rivalry between the KuK Kriegsmarine and the Regia Marina as the Austro-Hungarians wanted to build their battleships first and hence the construction was finally begun in the summer of 1910 even when the entire design documentation of the ships had not even been completed!
As you can see Project VIII was the final design chosen for further development. It was still designed for the /50 calibre 30,5cm cannons but this soon changed to /45 ones. The saved weight sued into widening the hull and adding a limited underwater protection system to the ships. (The final design was 27,3m wide and a 8,9m depth) Secondary armament was also strengthened to 6 per side 15cm guns rather only 5. And finally belt armour increased to 28cm.
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:
Project VI:
4x3 30,5cm/45 Skoda K10 Cannons,
10x1 15cm/50 Skoda K10 Casemated Guns,
14x1 7cm/50 Skoda K10 Guns,
4x1 53cm Torpedoes
Original sketch drawing:
imgur.com/0ckQRRK.jpeg
alternative to the 7cm armament placement:
imgur.com/FBiKObu.jpeg
