Re: World of Warships Admirals Lounge
She was authorized in April 1942 but put on hold as the US was building more Iowas and Essexs and then cancelled after Midway. Part of her hull was used for the Midway-class. Her armor was planned at 16inch STS for her belt which is more than possible and reasonable. I blame carriers for not being able to see such a great ship at sea.
They would only be even if you took out Montana's radar, and even at that point their guns are roughly the same while Yamato has roughly the same armor size (Montana has 409mm and Yamato has 410mm) but Montana has STS which is far thougher.
This is a small extract from Naval History and Heritage Command regarding the BB 67-71 Montana Class (which they describe their job to be "Collect, preserve, protect, present, and make relevant the artifacts, art, and documents that best capture the Navy's history and heritage):
"The Montanas also would have been the only American ships to come close to equalling the massive Japanese Yamato."
So even with the Motana they weren't even sure whether they would have beat the Yamato, but only to match it, without it ever being built it is kind of hard to suggest that Montana was far superior to Yamato. One thing is clear though, Montana is most likely able to land shots much better than a Yamato due to the much better radar the USS possess, this cannot be argued, its a fact. However Yamato is also known to be able to fire shots at over 42km, further than most other ships back in history including the Iowa class (which the Montana is basically the improved and better version of Iowa)
"The five battleships of the Montana class, authorized under the 1940 "Two Ocean Navy" building program and funded in Fiscal Year 1941, were the last of their kind ordered by the U.S. Navy."
It was authorized during 1940, not 1942. Which by that time, Yamato have already taken shape, which soon 1 year later was built and launched during 1941. So comparing technology, it would at least be 5-6 years apart between the two battleships, which back in the time makes a heck of a difference because if Yamato were to be built knowing Aircraft Carrier would have been a major threat, their AA armament would have been much better designed than what she was initially built with (though she did went under major rework later during the war to improve her AA armament, but to change what is already built is very hard and there are major limits to what they can do, also the fact that there is no time to make any major improvement either.)
Also I cannot remember where I read it before but Type 1 AP rounds would have roughly the same penetrating power as the Mark VII used by the Montana, if the Montana was built to withstand the Mark VII (her own shell) and the Yamato was also designed to withstand her own Type 1 shells, then I don't see how Montana's belt is far superior than that of Yamato's? Since from what I can see they're both designed to withstand their own shells which between the two shares roughly the same penetrating power? If that is the case they would just be firing at each other and not doing much most of the time if it does land on the armor belt...(but in real battle majority of the shots do miss, you'll be lucky to even land a shot, and normally when that happens it tend to cause massive damage during a battleship exchange)
"However, World War II's urgent requirements for more aircraft carriers, amphibious and anti-submarine vessels resulted in suspension of the Montanas in May 1942, before any of their keels had been laid. In July 1943, when it was clear that the battleship was no longer the dominant element of sea power, their construction was cancelled."
What was it about the parts that was used for Midway? Nothing of Montana was built, so nothing could have been used for Midway but her armor belt design.
Here is the source I used:
http://www.history.navy.mil/our-col...ships/battleships/montana-class-bb-67-71.html
I make some distinctions with paper ships, there are cases like Myogi or Izumo which were ships made as rough designs which would be later used for other ships (Myogi= Kongou, Izumo= Yamato). Then there are paper ships which could have been done if the nations didn't run out of money or thing of that nature (Montana, Ibuki). Then there's unbuildable designs like the german H-classes or japanese A-150 (they had trouble building the 460mm guns, how on earth would they build 510mm guns?).
Some source suggests that one, maybe two 510mm twin turret was built, though without a reliable source I cannot say for sure whether those actually exist or not. (Though it won't surprise me if they did build the 510mm gun, considering IJN had the balls to build the largest battleship in the world after all. And no, USS didn't "run out of money" but saw that Montana herself would her no purpose in future of naval warfare. It is very clear by the end of 1942 that battleships itself is becoming useless compared to the fair superior Aircraft carrier. I mean this is proven really well if you've ever entered a battle back in CBT with two Tier X Hakuryuu CV, they pretty much can take on a team of their own just the two of them. (and yes I was on their team, I remember the two of them just make the enemy completely useless). If this happen in a game, which is more or less a "simulation" of what could have happened, think of it this way, you can launch 32 aircraft at least (for Hakuryuu, not sure about Midway since I never encountered one yet), 64 with two of those CV and they're wrecking havoc in a simulation, imagine a real life situation.
Let us take Operation Ten-Go, the last moments of Yamato, she was met with nearly 400 aircraft bombarding her constantly for 2 hours before she was taken down. Imagine that as two Hakuryuu chasing you when you're on your Yamato, yep, you're going to sink before you even see the Hakuryuu. So if you ask me, the USS saw the future that the IJN didn't foresee, the power that CV displayed which is why in the end they went for Midway instead of Montana rather than running out of money, its the fact that they would build a large lump of steel shield that would probably be able to achieve 1/10 of what Midway could achieve (if not less), cost efficiency of Midway vs Montana is just clear what the USS should do.
Plus, who in their right mind would get close to Yamato? 
