Ersatz Monarch - class battleship The " Ersatz Monarch " - class ( " Replacement Monarch " - class ) battleship was a projected new class of four battleships which were to be constructed for the Austro - Hungarian Navy in 1914 – 1919 . Designed to replace the " Monarch " class of coastal defense ship s , each of the battleships were to carry ten L / 45 guns as their primary armament , a slight improvement over her predecessors , the . The ships were and were designed to displace . The Austro - Hungarian Navy intended to lay down the first vessel in July 1914 , but the outbreak of World War I that month caused the Navy to postpone construction until September . Ultimately , none of the vessels were laid down and they were formally cancelled in late 1917 . However , four of the 35 cm guns had been built and were transferred to the Austro - Hungarian Army for use on the Italian Front . History . The Austro - Hungarian Navy ordered the construction of four new battleships to replace the aging in May 1914 . As a result , the new class was known by the contract name for the first vessel , " Ersatz - Monarch " . The ships were to cost 82 – 83 million kronen each . The class was to be built in two separate shipyards : two battleships were to be built by Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino and two by Ganz & Co – Danubius . Proposals . The construction of the s had already begun in 1910 when Skodawerke A . G made the first of many attempts to obtain the approval for a new generation of " super " dreadnoughts to replace the aging " Monarch " - class ships . The original proposal laid forth on 18 April 1911 consisted of 45 - caliber guns with three guns in each of the two superimposed turrets . The Austro - Hungarian Naval Technical Committee later submitted three proposals by Austrian chief naval architect Franz Pitzinger on the general characteristics of the new class in December 1911 . The first of the three proposals called for a battleship with guns . A later proposal had the new class weighing and equipped with guns . The last proposal had the battleship weighing as much as . Despite the first two proposals on the main guns ' caliber , the final decision for the caliber was to be a modified and slightly larger version of the original proposal by Skodawerke A . G , with the main turrets to be equipped with to guns . The final design for the main turrets ' caliber was influenced by the Imperial German Navy , which had incorporated this caliber on its new s . By January 1913 , the Naval Technical Committee delivered its first official proposal for the new " Ersatz Monarch " - class battleships . The committee decided to choose the largest of the three initial proposals for the ship ' s tonnage , with each ship weighing roughly 24 , 100 tons . The battleships were to be equipped with a total of ten 45 - caliber guns , eighteen 50 - caliber guns , and twenty - two 45 - caliber guns . The main guns were to be between and . It took another year and a half for this final design to be formally approved in July 1914 . During this time , a further 12 designs were put forth . Layout . Armament and propulsion . The standard weight for the class was to be per ship . The ships ' length would have been and the beam while the draft would have been . The four battleships of the " Ersatz Monarch " - class would have been equipped with four - shaft steam turbines that produced and contained 15 Yarrow water - tube boilers ( nine coal - fired and six oil - fired ) . These engines would have enabled the four battleships to travel at . Their total range would have been while traveling at . Each battleship was to be manned by a crew of 1 , 050 to 1 , 100 officers and men . According the approved gun designs from January 1913 , the members of the " Ersatz Monarch " - class would have had 10 guns , 14 guns , 20 guns , two guns and six torpedo tubes . Armor . The armor plating on the ships would have been thick around the belt , barbettes , turrets and the conning tower , while the deck would have had thick armor . The underwater defenses of the battleships were a drastic change from previous Austro - Hungarian battleship designs . The new design was similar to recent French and Russian designs . A horizontal armor deck was built into the vessel inwards from the bottom edge of the armor belt , as far as the last vertical bulkheads . The new guns that were approved for the final design were modified to increase the effect of a broadside . However , in order to keep a stable balance between the ships ' protection , stability , and firepower , the battleships were to only be equipped with 10 guns . This new layout was unusual , having two turrets with three guns mounted on each of them being superimposed over two twin guns . Construction and cancellation . With the final design in place , four ships from the class were ordered by the Austro - Hungarian Navy in July 1914 . The Austro - Hungarian Navy followed the traditional German custom of not naming the new ships until they were formally launched . As a result , the Navy only referred to them as " replacements " for the old " Monarch " - class ships , hence the name " Ersatz " ( replacement ) . The four battleships themselves were simply referred to as " Battleships VIII - XI " . Because several design sketches that all had slight differences were put forth , the exact final appearance of the ships are not known . However , they all would have been built with raised forecastles in order to give them better seaworthiness than their predecessors of the " Tegetthoff " class . The battleships would have been equipped with lattice towers that would hold searchlight platforms . Each battleship would have cost about 83 million kronen . The first battleship would have been laid down in July 1914 , but this date was later pushed back to September due to the outbreak of World War I at the end of July . The first battleship , " Battleship VIII , " was scheduled to have been completed on 30 June 1917 . The second battleship , referred to as " Battleship IX , " would have been laid down on 1 January 1915 and launched on 31 December 1917 . The third and fourth battleships , " Battleship X " and " Battleship XI , " were scheduled to be laid down on 1 June 1916 and completed on 31 May 1919 . The main guns were to be built by Skoda , and while the battleships themselves were never laid down , the guns for one battleship had been ordered prior to the beginning of World War I . These were the only orders that the Austro - Hungarian Navy had placed for any part of the four battleships . It was assumed that following a victorious conclusion to the war in just two months , work on the battleships would resume . As the war continued , four of the main guns that were ordered from the Skoda works were handed over to the Austro - Hungarian Army for use on the Italian front . The rest of the completed main guns were later taken by the French as a war prize following the end of the war . In late 1917 , the construction on all four vessels was canceled .