 After the loss of the fast battleship Hiei at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in late 1942 to rudder damage , the IJN decided to reinforce the protection of the steering compartment and to create an auxiliary steering compartment . The protection of the former was strengthened by the addition of a concrete wall at least 1 metre ( 3 ft 3 in ) in thickness and some of the armour removed from the turrets was used to protect the latter . The double bottom below the former positions of aft turrets was converted to hold fuel oil ; this increased the ships ' endurance to 9 @,@ 500 nautical miles ( 17 @,@ 600 km ; 10 @,@ 900 mi ) at a speed of 16 knots . A pair of Type 22 surface @-@ search radars were also fitted during the conversion . 
 After the loss of the fast battleship Hiei at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in late 1942 to rudder damage , the IJN decided to reinforce the protection of the steering compartment and to create an auxiliary steering compartment . The protection of the former was strengthened by the addition of a concrete wall at least 1 metre ( 3 ft 3 in ) in thickness and some of the armour removed from the turrets was used to protect the latter . The double bottom below the former positions of aft turrets was converted to hold fuel oil ; this increased the ships <a href='null_genetive' title='1'><mark>'</mark></a>endurance to 9 @,@ 500 nautical miles ( 17 @,@ 600 km ; 10 @,@ 900 mi ) at a speed of 16 knots . A pair of Type 22 surface @-@ search radars <a href='uninflect' title='2'><mark>were</mark></a> also fitted during the conversion . 
After the loss of the fast battleship Hiei at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal in late 1942 to rudder damage , the IJN decided to reinforce the protection of da steering compartment and to create an auxiliary steering compartment . Tdaprotection of the former was strengthened by thdaddition of a concrete wall at least 1 metre ( 3 ft 3 in ) in thickness and some of the armour removed from the turrets was used to protect the latter . Thedauble bottom below the damer positions of aft turrets was converted to hold fuel oil ; dis increased the ships  endurance to 9 @,@ 500 nautical miles ( 17 @,@ 600 km ; 10 @,@ 900 mi ) at a speed of 16 knots . A pair of Type 22 surface @-@ search radars was also fitted during the conversion .