Surviving drawings and later design studies can blur the Montana class into a faster, more heavily armed ship than the contracted design. Twelve 16-inch guns remain consistent, but the often-repeated 33-knot figure appears to come from later options. The class instead belonged with North Carolina and South Dakota as a heavy 28-knot successor to the earlier standard battle line. Iowa filled the fast-ship role, while five Montanas would have helped create an eleven-ship line of modern 28-knot battleships.
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Why Montana was a 28-knot battleship
Later Montana variants should be separated from the 28-knot, twelve-gun design conceived as the next American battle-line standard.