At Spruance's strong request, Admiral King withstood the pressure from above and arranged combat missions for the Atlantic Fleet. Among the newly formed Second Atlantic Fleet (after the United States passed the "Two Oceans Navy Act", the fleet number in the Atlantic direction is double), the most eye-catching are the four "Montana"-class battleships. According to the combat experience summed up by the British Navy in the Atlantic Ocean and the actual situation in the Atlantic, Spruance also uncharacteristically attached great importance to these four "Montana"-class battleships, and even put the training of battleships before the training of aircraft carriers.

The appearance of battleships of the "Montana" class can be described as twists and turns. After completing the design work on the battleships of the "Iowa" class, the engineers of the US Navy were not able to get a chance to breathe. At that time, the US Navy received information that the Japanese were building super-battleships with a displacement of 70,000 tons and a caliber of more than 420 meters (in fact, 460 meters) with their main guns. In addition, the Tang Imperial Navy is also beginning to design the "New Provincial Capital" class battleships, although the technical standards of the "New Provincial Capital" class battleships are not as perverted as the new Japanese battleships, but this kind of battleship is designed for the "South Dakota" class, and it is very likely to surpass the "Iowa" class battleships in terms of performance, therefore, the US Navy urgently needs a super battleship that is more powerful than the "Iowa" class battleships and can completely suppress the opponent in artillery battles.

During the design process, the displacement of the battleship became the biggest problem. At that time, U.S. naval engineers were struggling to keep the standard displacement of the new battleship within 45,000 tons (the standard for passing through the Panama Canal). However, it soon became clear to the engineers that if the displacement of the battleships were to be strictly limited, it would not be possible to build a better battleship than the Iowa-class battleships under the conditions of the time. The problem was that if the displacement was increased, the battleships would not be able to cross the Panama Canal and travel between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The only way to do this is to make a detour to Cape Horn in southern South America, which would be very troublesome and would extend the route by thousands of nautical miles. After much deliberation, the U.S. Navy decided that suppressing the enemy was the key, so it finally relaxed the design criteria and no longer strictly required to limit the displacement of warships. Even later it was not required to limit the maximum width and draft of the battleship (both of which were also important indicators of passage through the Panama Canal).

After relaxing their hands and feet, the engineers quickly determined the main performance indicators of the battleship, and in the initial design, its standard displacement was 60500~:|:00 tons. The two data of Japan's "Yamato" class are 62,315 tons and 68,200 ~: after the "Montana" class is built and put into service, it will be the largest battleship in the history of the United States. The design work was completed in mid-427, and the US Navy was quite satisfied with its design indicators, and then Philadelphia was arranged. New York, as well as several shipyards in Norfolk. But. The construction of battleships of this class was not all smooth sailing.

In the original design, the "Montana" class, in addition to a huge displacement. Its length reached 282, its width was 37 meters, and its draft was 12 meters. The latter two figures already exceeded the maximum navigable capacity of the Panama Canal, and also surpassed the other battleships in the world at that time. At the time of the initial design, because American engineers believed that the Japanese "Yamato" class was more powerful than the "new provincial capital" class of the Tang Empire, the design target was directly aimed at the "Yamato" class instead of the "new provincial capital" class, which eventually led to a sharp increase in its displacement.

In order to be able to cope with the threat of 460 meter caliber guns. The Montana class used a 16-inch gun with a 50x diameter, and increased > density by adding a triple turret. Thereby increasing the strike capabilities of the battleship. There is no doubt that this decision was quite correct. If the U.S. Navy had decided to adopt a larger-caliber ground gun, not only would it have taken a lot of time to develop, but it would have been impossible to install four triple turrets on the battleship, and the relevant designs would have to be changed, and some supporting spare parts would have to be redeveloped, which would have been extremely troublesome. And the facts have also proved that the Japanese Navy's 45 times diameter 460-meter main gun is slightly farther than the 50 times diameter 16-inch main gun and the 400-meter main gun in terms of firing range, and other performance, especially in armor-piercing ability, is not much worse, but in terms of rate of fire, as well as the life of the artillery barrel, firepower density, etc., it is much worse. At that time, increasing the length of the main gun barrel to increase the power of the main gun was also a shortcut chosen by the Tang Imperial Navy during the war. The same choice made by the Americans not only ended up increasing the firepower of the battleship, but also reducing trouble.

In fact, the 50 times the diameter of the 16-inch gun. In the case of armor-piercing shells, it was possible to penetrate 3 mm thick vertical armor plates at a distance of 381 yards, and the armor-piercing power reached 521 mm at a distance of 2 yards. The battle distance was mostly within 2 yards, and no battleship, including the "Montana" class, had a main armor more than 500 meters thick! In other words, the main gun of the "Montana" class can not only penetrate the main armor of any opponent, but also penetrate its own main armor! And in order to increase survivability, the armor of the "Montana" class was raised by a notch compared to the "Iowa" class. The thickness of the main armor of the "Iowa" class was only 16 inches, while the thickness of the "Montana" class Timmy reached 500 meters. This was already the thickest armor that could be added at the time, but it still looked a little thin in the face of increasingly powerful armor-piercing shells.

In comparison, the 55-diameter 400-mm main gun used by the Tang Imperial Navy on the "New Provincial Capital" class at that time could hit a 400-meter-thick vertical armor steel plate at a distance of 3 yards when using Type 26 armor-piercing shells, and the armor-piercing ability reached 550 meters at a distance of 2 yards. The main guns of the "New Provincial Capital" class have a longer barrel and better armor-piercing shells, and their armor-piercing power is higher than that of the "Montana" class, but the thickness of the main armor of the "New Provincial Capital" class is only 420 meters, which is about the same as the 500-meter-thick armor steel plate of the US Navy. That is, within a combat distance of 20,000 yards, the "New Provincial Capital" class battleships had a great deal of certainty

, but at the same time, it will also be pierced by the main gun of the "Montana" class. ▋

In addition to increasing the power of the main gun, increasing the density of firepower, and thickening the armor, the Montana class also uses a number of advanced technologies. For example, each power compartment is set up separately, so as to improve the survivability of the power compartment, and avoid the flooding of one power compartment and the flooding of adjacent power compartments, which will eventually cause the battleship to lose all power. The vertical armor plates set between the power compartments also avoid the danger of being knocked out of several power compartments by a single shell. As the threat from the air intensified, the Montana class increased the thickness of the horizontal armor across the board, and for the first time adopted the design of a double-level armor deck, with a total thickness of 263 meters for the two horizontal armor decks, and the gap in the middle could also improve the defense capability. Correspondingly, at that time, the horizontal armor thickness of the "New Provincial Capital" class was only 180 meters, which was about the same as the 220 meters of the US Navy.

It was precisely because of this design that the Montana class could not be equipped with more boilers, and its design main engine output was 4 horsepower less than that of the Iowa class, and the displacement of the battleship increased dramatically, as a result of which its maximum speed could only reach 28 knots, instead of 33. The requirements of the Navy were met, and in operation, the Montana class could still accompany the aircraft carriers, and in most cases, a separate fleet of battleships would be formed, without the need to act with the carriers.

There is no doubt that the Montana class has surpassed the New Capital class in most performances. The real opponent of this battleship, which was originally aimed at the "Yamato" class, was the "New Provincial Capital" class. If these battleships had been built and put into service when the United States entered the war, and the "New Provincial Capital" class had not been improved in the middle of the period at that time, the battleships of the US Navy would definitely completely overwhelm the battleships of the Tang Imperial Navy, and even make some battles transform. For example, the outcome of the "Battle of the Coral Sea" will certainly be different. However, by the middle of the 25, the construction of the first batch of five battleships of the "Montana" class, which had already begun for almost a year, was canceled.

At that time, the United States was already at war. And actual combat has proved that it is no longer battleships that really dominate the battlefield, but aircraft carriers. At the same time, the US Navy had lost a large number of aircraft carriers before that, and the construction of aircraft carriers of the "Essex" class came first. In this case, the U.S. Navy must first concentrate on building more aircraft carriers. The most critical thing is. At that time, the main battlefield of the US Navy was in the Pacific Ocean, and the design index of the "Montana" class was too large, so that it could not pass through the Panama Canal, and could only enter the Pacific Ocean by bypassing Cape Horn, and thus could not accompany the aircraft carrier fleet in and out of the Pacific Ocean, so it was impossible to play a greater role in the battlefield.

After canceling the construction of the "Montana" class, the US Navy ordered four more battleships of the "Iowa" class to compensate for the losses on the battleships. Moreover, the four "Iowa"-class battleships ordered later used all 50 times the diameter of the main guns, which basically made up for the shortcomings. Of course. The four battleships were also quickly sunk.

By the end of 26, the tide of the war was already seriously unfavorable for the United States. The construction of the "Essex" class is also on track. In several artillery battles, the battleships of the US Navy suffered from it. In particular, in the "Battle of the Coral Sea", it was precisely because the battleship fleet was the first to be routed, as a result of which the Third Fleet suffered a crushing defeat. Under these circumstances, the U.S. Navy also recognized that battleships were not useless, and that under special circumstances, the status of battleships was still irreplaceable. At that time, it was already recognized. If the United States loses the Pacific War, then it will face the powerful naval challenge of the Tang Empire in the Atlantic. At that time, the American fleet will not have to travel between the two oceans, and there will be no problem of passing through the Panama Canal. In addition, the special environment in the Atlantic determines that battleships are more valuable, otherwise the British Navy would not fully lead the construction of battleships, rather than vigorously developing aircraft carriers. At this time, the US Navy made a request to restart the construction of the "Montana" class.

The requirements of the U.S. Navy were quickly met, and the order given by the president at that time was to meet all the needs of the Navy as much as possible. As a result, the Navy proposed not to build four battleships of the Montana class, but in three batches, a total of 15 ships. However, the problem is that it is not easy to restart construction, and many of the weapons and equipment ordered for the "Montana" class at that time were used in other warships, such as its 127 mm secondary guns were used in several newly built "Essex" class aircraft carriers, and some were assigned to the "Midway" class aircraft carriers where construction was under construction.

It took nearly half a year for the US Navy to restart the construction of the "Montana" class, but in the end it was only able to meet the requirement of building four battleships at the same time, and the construction of the last of the first batch, the "Louise Anna", could only be temporarily delayed and included in the second batch of construction lists.

After a painstaking effort to restart construction, the four Montana-class battleships were finally completed and delivered to the Navy at the end of '27. However, the "Montana" class when it was actually built is different from when it was originally designed.

At a time when the Montana class, which had a speed of only 28 knots, proved to be insufficient, the shipyard used a larger powertrain with a greater output and for this purpose, the layout of the adjacent compartments was adjusted to reduce the volume of the ammunition compartments of the two aft turrets. After all, in a regular naval battle, there is not much need for 200 shells per gun, and no naval battle will be fought for more than 100 rounds, and the US Navy at that time had no ground strike mission, so there was no need to consider the amount of ammunition for the main guns.

The most critical improvement was to equip the battleship with a better gun-sighting radar. The performance of the battleships of the Tang Imperial Navy has proven that gunsight radar is a must-have for battleships, and even a decisive piece of equipment. With aircraft carriers on both sides, battleships rarely make sorties during the day, and battles are mostly fought at night, and in the case of night operations, the performance of the gun-sighting radar will play the most critical role.

Some of the other improvements are minor. These four Montana-class battleships were the most important weight in Spruance's hands. Especially in autumn, when the North Atlantic blows cold winds, the sea conditions will no longer be suitable for aircraft carrier operations, and at that time, battleships will become the main force in naval warfare!