Editing Montana-class battleship (section)

=== General characteristics ===
As authorized, the ''Montana''-class ships (design "BB 67-4") would have been {{cvt|890|ft}} [[long at the waterline]] and {{cvt|921|ft|3|in}} [[long overall]]. At the waterline, their [[beam (nautical)|beam]] was to have been {{cvt|115|ft}}, but their maximum beam increased to {{cvt|121|ft|2|in}}. The ships were to have had a [[standard displacement]] of {{cvt|60500|LT}}, with a designed trials displacement of {{cvt|68317|LT}}. [[Full load]] displacement increased to {{cvt|70965|LT}}, and emergency load grew further to {{cvt|71922|LT}}. At their standard displacement, the ships would have had a [[draft (hull)|draft]] of {{cvt|35|ft}}, while at emergency load, the draft increased to {{cvt|36|ft|10|in}}. The ships would have had a [[metacentric height]] of {{convert|8.2|ft}}. Their projected crew was to have amounted to 115&nbsp;officers and 2,240&nbsp;enlisted men; this grew to 189&nbsp;officers and 2,789&nbsp;enlisted men while serving as a [[flagship]].{{sfn|Friedman|1985|p=450}}{{sfn|Garzke|Dulin|1995|pp=171–175}}

The ''Montana'' design shares many characteristics with the previous classes of American fast battleships starting from the ''North Carolina'' class, such as a [[bulbous bow]], a [[Double hull|triple bottom]] under the [[armored citadel]], and twin skegs in which the inner shafts were housed. The ''Montana''s{{'}} overall construction would have made extensive use of welding for joining structural plates and homogeneous armor, which saved weight compared to traditional [[rivet]]ing. Like all of the US interwar designs, the ''Montana''s would have had a [[flush deck|flush]] [[main deck]] that was steeply flared at the bow to reduce the amount of water taken on in heavy seas. The ''Montana'' class would have carried three aircraft for [[Aerial reconnaissance|reconnaissance]] and gunnery spotting. They would have been operated from catapults on the ship's fantail, as was standard for US battleship designs of the period.{{sfn|Garzke|Dulin|1995|pp=171–175}}{{sfn|Friedman|1980|pp=97–100}}