As with the battlecruisers and other ships (Deutschlands) that were built with battleship guns but cruiser armour, they were not built to face full battleships. When these ships did face full battleships in and around Las Malvinas Islands, they came off worst. Being 10 years younger than the Rivadavias and the ex-Germanic States ships, these two were the last taken in hand for refurbishment in late 1938, returning to the fleet just in time for WW2 to begin. The Argentinian Naval Architects had been given the task of designing a set of upgrades for all of the old capital ships. The mains aims were to improve the gunnery control for both Main and Secondary armaments, improve the AA weaponry, and lastly to improve the command features. To give the ships command structure the best information available as soon as possible. Having access to German weapons and gunnery control designs allowed the Argentinians to achieve all of their objectives.
Followers of this site will notice that I am using common bridge parts and superstructure on these rebuilds. That is by choice. The Germans started by building ships with similar bridges and silhouettes so as to confuse identification of their capital ships and large cruisers. I take this a step further by making the same structures as it is quicker to reproduce a plan than to redraw the plan each time. If you know you need 7 copies of something then building seven in a row is much easier, quicker and best of all - cheaper. Just ask the Americans who took that 'production line' building to an art form in WW2.
