 The armor protecting the secondary turrets was thick.The existing underwater protection was replaced by the Pugliese system that consisted of a large cylinder surrounded by fuel oil or water that was intended to absorb the blast of a torpedo warhead.These modernizations have been criticized by some naval historians because these ships would eventually prove to be inferior to the British battleships they were meant to face (namely the , since by the time the decision to proceed was taken a war between Italy and the United Kingdom seemed more likely).