In 1904, Austria-Hungary, keen to upgrade its navy, placed an order with the British torpedo-craft specialist Yarrow for designs for a 400 t destroyer and a 200 t sea-going torpedo boat.

Prototypes of both types would be built by Yarrow with production continuing in the Austria-Hungary, split between the Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) shipyard in Trieste, Austria and the Ganz-Danubius yard at Fiume, Hungary.

[5] The ships were powered by two four-cylinder triple expansion steam engines, fed by four Yarrow boilers, rated at 6,000 ihp (4,500 kW), driving two shafts.

[4][5] One innovation compared with the Ikazuchis was that the uptake to the forward funnel was trunked rearward, allowing the funnel to be moved aft, in turn making room for the ship's bridge to be situated well aft of the turtleback forecastle.

The first ship, SMS Huszár[c] was laid down at Yarrow's London shipyard in September 1904, the ship launching on 31 March 1905 and completing on 19 September 1905,[5] reaching 28.16 knots (52.15 km/h; 32.41 mph).

[4] The Austro-Hungarian Navy was dissolved after the end of the First World War, with its ships being split between the Allied nations.