Ersatz Zenta-class cruiser

Line-drawing of the Ersatz Zenta design
Class overview
Name	Ersatz Zenta-class cruiser[a]
Builders	Contract awarded to Ganz—Danubius, construction never started
Operators	Austro-Hungarian Navy
Preceded by	Novara class
Succeeded by	None
Built	1914–1917 (Projected)
Planned	3
Cancelled	3
General characteristics (original design)
Type	Light cruiser
Displacement	Design: 4,950 t (4,870 long tons; 5,460 short tons) Full load: 5,611 t (5,522 long tons; 6,185 short tons)
Length	151.2 m (496 ft) lwl 153.1 m (502 ft) loa
Beam	13.7 m (45 ft)
Draft	6.4 m (21 ft)
Installed power	16 × Yarrow boilers 40,000 shp (30,000 kW)
Propulsion	2 × AEG-Curtis steam turbines 2 × screws
Speed	30.1 knots (55.7 km/h; 34.6 mph)
Armament	14 × 12 cm (4.7 in) 45-cal. guns 1 × 47 mm (1.9 in) 44-cal. gun 1 × 66 mm (2.6 in) 18-cal. gun 2 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 20 mm (0.79 in) Deck: 38 mm (1.5 in)
General characteristics (1915 version)
Speed	29 to 30 knots (54 to 56 km/h; 33 to 35 mph)
Armament	2 × 19 cm (7.5 in) 45-cal. guns 6–8 × 15 cm (5.9 in) 50-cal. guns 2–4 × 9 cm (3.5 in) 45-cal. guns 2 × 533 mm torpedo tubes
Armor	Belt: 120 to 150 mm (4.7 to 5.9 in)

The Ersatz Zenta class was a class of three planned light cruisers of the Austro-Hungarian Navy designed in the mid-1910s as part of a naval expansion program passed during a period of rising tensions in Europe. Several designs were proposed, including options for a so-called "yacht cruiser" that was to have been used by Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The design that was ultimately selected called for ships that were capable of speeds of at least 30 knots (56 km/h; 35 mph), with an armament of fourteen 12-centimeter (4.7 in) guns and a thin armored belt that was 20 millimeters (0.79 in) thick.

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 Zenta-class cruisers. The ships, only ever given the contract names "Cruiser K", "Cruiser L", and "Cruiser M", were scheduled to be laid down beginning in July 1914. The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand the month before and the resulting July Crisis, which culminated in the start of World War I on 28 July, led the navy to suspend all new ship construction projects. Work on a revised version of the design began in December 1915, but shortages of material and a lack of skilled shipyard workers meant that the new design would be completed on paper only. None of the three ships were ever laid down and the project was abandoned after Austria-Hungary's defeat at the end of the war.
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