Between the 1860s and the 1880s, the Austro-Hungarian Navy acquired a fleet of seventeen ironclad warships, including broadside ironclads, central battery ships and barbette ships. The first generation of ships, the seven broadside ironclads of the Drache, Kaiser Max and Erzherzog Ferdinand Max classes, formed the core of the Austrian fleet that was involved in an ironclad arms race with Italy in the 1860s and defeated the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) at the Battle of Lissa in July 1866. The Austrian commander, Wilhelm von Tegetthoff, used ramming tactics to win the battle, which influenced the second generation of ironclads that he ordered in the late 1860s and early 1870s. These ships—Lissa, Custoza, Erzherzog Albrecht and the rebuilt ship of the line Kaiser—were central battery