Authorised under the 1940 “Two Ocean Navy” building program and funded in the fiscal year of 1941, the U.S. Navy’s Montana-class battleships were envisioned as the successors to the formidable Iowa class. These leviathans of the sea, with a proposed standard displacement of 60,500 tons and armament of twelve 16/50 calibre guns, were designed to outmatch any battleship afloat, closely rivalling even Japan’s massive Yamato-class in firepower and armour.
However, these titans of naval might remained on the drawing board, as the necessities of World War II dictated a paradigm shift from the era of the battleship to the age of the aircraft carrier.
Work on the Montana-class battleships began at a time when tensions were rising, along with the expectation of another world war that would involve both theatres of action, the Atlantic and Pacific. The Montanas were to be the first U.S. battleships without restrictions due to the Panama Canal; this freedom in design enabled a larger size, more armour, and heavier armaments.
Despite the advances in their design, the Montanas were slower than their predecessors, the Iowa class, with a projected maximum speed of 28 knots, and required a beam too wide for the Panama Canal locks. The U.S. Navy had envisioned the Montanas as a mighty counter to Japan’s Yamato and the need for a formidable naval presence in a two-ocean war. But the attack on Pearl Harbour and subsequent engagements like the Coral Sea and Midway drove home the point of the escalating dominance of aircraft carriers in sea war scenarios. The era of ship-to-ship gun battles was giving way to a time where air supremacy and anti-submarine measures were paramount.
By July 1943, the Navy had recognised the shift in naval doctrine and made the fateful decision to cancel the Montana class. Keels had not been laid for any of the five ships planned: Montana (BB-67), Ohio (BB-68), Maine (BB-69), New Hampshire (BB-70), and Louisiana (BB-71).
