Austria-Hungary's approach fits the risk-fleet concept: it lacked enough ships to guarantee victory over Italy, yet had enough quality to make a fight expensive and uncertain. The navy raised gun power and concentrated on designs suited to its own theatre instead of matching Italian construction ship for ship. Readiness mattered as much as hull count, because an Italian force facing the full Austro-Hungarian fleet might win only at prohibitive cost. Italy therefore had to keep sufficient strength immediately available instead of assuming its numerical margin would always decide the encounter. The later hypothetical force of Tegetthoffs, Radetzkys, Ersatz Monarchs, and Goeben illustrates how even a local fleet could force wider Allied redeployments.
Notable Point · 1:02:18-1:17:45
Austria-Hungary's Adriatic risk-fleet strategy
The video argues that Austria-Hungary pursued quality and readiness to make an Italian victory in the Adriatic prohibitively costly.