The Montana-class battleships were slightly faster than their Japanese counterparts, with a max speed of 28 knots.ĭespite the awesome firepower the Montana-class battleships brought to naval warfare, the success of aircraft carriers diminished the value of constructing new battleships. Because of its large width though, the Montana-class battleships would have been unable to pass through the Panama Canal and its 110-foot-wide locks. It was designed to be fitted with 12 16-inch guns, three more than the Iowa-class battleship. At nearly 71,000 tons, 921 feet long and 121 feet wide, the USS Montana was almost equivalent in size to the IJN Yamato. The five ships originally ordered would have been the largest, best protected, and most heavily armed battleships ever constructed by the United States. Preliminary designs for the Montana-class battleships began before the US entry into World War II. With the mindset of countering the massive Yamato-class battleships with one of their own, the US began the development of the Montana-class battleship. In comparison, the eight American battleships in construction (South Dakota-class and Iowa-class) were designed to carry nine 16-inch naval guns that could fire a 2,700 lb. The ships were fitted with nine 18-inch naval guns, each capable of firing a 3,000 lb. The Yamato-class ships were the heaviest and most powerfully armed battleships ever constructed. When the war erupted, the US had two modern fast battleships (USS North Carolina and USS Washington), but these warships could not compete with the massive Yamato-class battleship of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Before the start of the war the US Navy had 20 battleships in its inventory, with five of those being Dreadnought-era warships. For the Japanese, the attack had given them an edge in the ensuing naval war that would erupt across the Pacific. The surprise attack on Pearl Harbor devastated the American battleship fleet.
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