At the same time, as many countries' navies improved the armor protection of their battleships, they were also increasing the caliber of their secondary batteries to counter the heavier armor, such as the American s that had a heavy secondary battery of and guns. The German design staff followed both trends by increasing the secondary battery for the "Braunschweig" design from to guns. And the armor layout was improved compared to the "Wittelsbach"s, the primary changes being increasing the height of the belt armor (to prevent it from being submerged at full load) and increasing the thickness of the armor protecting the secondary battery casemates. The design staff considered increasing the anti-torpedo boat guns from to , but decided against the change because the increased weight would have necessitated reducing the number of guns. The heavier shells would have also reduced the rate of fire.