The programme remained difficult to afford despite Austria-Hungary's industrial capacity. The cited sequence for earlier battleships rose from 18 to 26, 40, and then 60 million kronen per ship as the designs grew larger and more complex. At an average estimate of about 82 million kronen per Ersatz Monarch, four ships would total roughly 328 million kronen. That exceeded the combined procurement cost of the Habsburg, Erzherzog Karl, and Radetzky classes. Inflation contributed, as did increasing hull size, complexity, firepower, and the dense suite of smaller defensive guns. Those figures explain why funding delayed a design that Austro-Hungarian industry could build.
Notable Point · 31:11-32:43
Why four Ersatz Monarchs strained the naval budget
A projected 328 million kronen for four ships made the programme more expensive than several earlier Austro-Hungarian battleship classes combined.