Austrio-Hungarian AU

[Karle94]

Sorry for the double post, bit I've started on a project I've called the Future Battleship Concept. It is the next generation of battleship for the Austrio-Hungarian navy, with the first ship planned to hit the water in mid-late 20s. The mos likely "name" would be Ersatz Erzherzog Karl (that's a mouthfull.) The ship is 224m p/p and 227m o/a, with a beam of 29m. Designed to counter the new generation of ships being laid down around the world, the Italian Francesco Caraccialo class in particular. In keeping with Austrian practice of having the same gun caliber as the Germans, the new class of battleship was designed with 8x42cm guns in four twin turrets. The secondary battery consisted of 10x15cm guns in casemates mounted in the superstructure, and four of the all-new single 15cm turreted DP guns. The ships was designed for 27,5kts speed. A higher top speed was desired, but increased protection and firepower was given priority over speed.

I'd like your input on the design. Does this look like the next logical progression had the KuK existed past 1918?
FYI, the turreted 15cm guns make appearances on the battlecruiser project 6, as well as battleship project 5.

Here is the wip:

[Hood]

I think it looks a plausible evolution of KuK thinking. Might be good to add a quartet of 88-100mm AA guns too.

[Karle94]

While I work some kinks out on the future of the KuK I thought it would be a good thing to see some of the competition facing the KuK across the pond; namely the Italian navy. I've begun work on the 1914 version of the Francesco Caracciolo. A 28kts fast battleship armed with 8x15in guns. It mmust be said, this is not a fantasy design, as the lead ship was in fact laid down, she was launched in 1920, but never completed. All four of the class were cancelled as Italy could not afford to build them.

Anywhoo, here's the current progress on the Francesco Caracciolo:

[Karle94]

Here comes some AU designs for Italy. The first one is the Conte di Cavour class. Arnament is mostly the same, but the hull has features from the real life Andrea Doria, namely the shorter forecastle deck, and the Q turret dropped down one deck. Half of the 4,7in secondary battery is placed in the rear hull.

Conte di Cavour class:


The successor to the Cavour class is the Andrea Doria class. It is lengthened by 10m for a total length of 186m. The wet rear secondary battery is moved up one deck, and all 4,7in guns have been replaced with 6in guns. With France building the Bretagne class with 13,4in guns, Italy in cooperation with British companies developed a 13,5in gun for the Italian navy. A total of 10 guns were mounted in a layout similar to that of the Cavour class. The armor belt was increased from 9,8 inches to 12, and deck armor from 1,6 inches to 2,5.

Andrea Doria class:

[Karle94]

The next topic is about Italian fast movers. I have two "competing" designs. The Livorno class battlecruiser armed with 8x12in guns, 7x6in guns, same type as the Andrea Doria. The Livorno has a belt armor in keeping with a battlecruiser at 8 inches and a top speed of 30kts.

The other design is a rebuilt of the Leonardo da Vinci as a fast battleship. By completely rebuilding the bow, extending the length of the ship and increasing the propulsion plant by removing the q turret speed could be increased to around 25-26kts. As per the real life proposals for the da Vinci, this design incorporates the 6in guns from the Caracciolo class.

Livorno class battlecruiser:


Fast battleship Leonardo da Vinci:

[Karle94]

Updated some of the drawings that inspired this AU, with a new addition; the Ersatz Zenta class of light cruiser. The 1917 designs of battleship and battlecruiser have both recieved 4 turrets each of the rather novel 150mm single turreted DP gun.

Ersatz Monarch Battleship:


Ersatz Habsburg Battleship:


Ersatz Maria Theresia Battlecruiser:


Ersatz Erzherzog Karl Battleship:


Ersatz Zenta Light Cruiser:

[Hood]

Very nice work, the Ersatz Zenta looks especially good for a large light cruiser.

[Karle94]

As with other never built, she is an amalgamation of two-three different proposals, all similar, but with their own small changes. For instance, the bridge structure, though similar to previous classes of cruisers contained the conning tower as the base, whilst another design had a seperate conning tower ahead of it, as shown here. Because of this, and some minor differances to the stern, the cruiser is between 5-10 meters longer than it "should" be. Should also point out that the Ersatz Zenta has 120mm guns, making them slightly smaller than most light cruisers of the day.

Some designs also had two single, or two twin turrets, but I chose not to use them for this design. I am also working on the project 7 "heavy cruiser", a ship with three turrets containing 7,5" guns, on a hull similar, though much smaller than the Project 1-6 battleships/battlecruisers.

[Karle94]

Even though it's not finished, I've decided to post the wip here to showcase the good progress I've made on the Project VII heavy cruiser design.

Edit: Just finished the drawing. Not too much fancy details, then again, it's only a cruiser.

[Karle94]

Here are some updates to the KuK:

Radetzky Class:


Tegetthoff Class:
10x12" Gun Version:


Enlarged 12x12" Gun Version:


The Radetzky is a dreadnought version that was rejected in real life as it weighted more than 16k tons standard. Perfect for my Au!

The two Tegetthoff designs are made to fix the top heavyness of the class.
The first design does this on the same hull, but reduces armament to five turrets with two guns each, for a total of 10 guns.

The second design reduces top heavyness by enlarging the hull. It is effectively the very first of the Ersatz Monarch prelims. At 161m long and 28,5m wide, as opposed to 27,9m.

Both designs have a stability of 1.0 in springsharp, whereas the real life deisgn has a stability of .97. This still makes them top heavy, but can make a turn of more than 10 degrees outside of an emergency.

I can't choose which one to go for in the Au. It's like choosing who is the favourite child, they are both my babies.