Austro-Hungarian naval designs and prudent threat assessment

Austro-Hungarian naval architecture earns praise for designs that could force rivals to reconsider their own work. Construction did not always fulfil that promise, although most of the ships receive a favourable assessment. Occasional disappointing vessels are a problem shared by other navies. A navy preparing to fight such ships should therefore assume competent construction when assessing their capabilities. Relying on an opponent to execute a good design badly would leave the defence plan dependent on an unproven weakness.