Austria-Hungary be drawn into a larger naval conflict encompassing the Mediterranean, Admiral Spaun would still be capable of fulfilling her role successfully and that a class of battlecruisers was not necessary for such a scenario. Following the construction of Admiral Spaun, her design was so well received that she was used to influence the construction of the three Novara-class cruisers which followed her. The similarities between Admiral Spaun and the Novaras were so close that despite being different classes, both contemporary and modern publications occasionally link all four ships together as members of the same class. Admiral Spaun had an overall length of . At the waterline, the cruiser had a length of , while her length between perpendiculars measured . She had a beam of and a mean draft of at deep load. She was designed to displace at normal load, but at full combat load she displaced . The propulsion systems of the ship consisted of six Parsons steam turbines and four shafts. These turbines were designed to provide and were powered by 16 Yarrow water-tube boilers, giving Admiral Spaun a top speed of during her sea trials. Admiral Spaun had a crew of 320–327 officers and men. Admiral Spaun was armed with a main battery of seven 50-caliber guns in single pedestal mounts. Two were placed forward on the forecastle of the ship, four were located amidship, two on either side, and one was located on the quarterdeck. She also possessed a SFK L/44 gun. A Škoda /50 K10 anti-aircraft gun and four torpedo tubes in twin mounts were added to Admiral Spaun in 1916. The guns of Admiral Spaun were of a smaller caliber than many other cruisers of the era, which led to plans to remove the guns on the forecastle and quarterdeck of the ship and replace them with a pair of guns fore and aft, but these modifications were not able to take place before the war ended. Her smaller armament was due in part because of a desire within the Austro-Hungarian Navy for Admiral Spaun to have a faster speed and greater armour than most other contemporary cruisers of the era. As a result, the armament of the cruiser had to be scaled down. Admiral Spaun was protected at the waterline by an armoured belt which measured thick amidship. The guns had thick shields, while the thickness of the deck for the