Surface Forces: Naval Reload Realities
26th March 2024
Back in the early 1980s American warships began using VLS (Vertical Launch System) cells to carry the many different missiles ships used for attacking other ships, defeating air attacks, and bombarding land targets. Since 1982, over 11,000 VLS cells have been installed in nearly 200 American and foreign warships. The most common VLS user is the American Burke class destroyer, with 90 VLS cells.
The first ships to get VLS also received a strikedown crane so the cells could be reloaded at sea. By 1990 new models of missiles became too heavy for the strikedown crane and it wasn’t practical to install a larger and more powerful crane. Moreover, there were few opportunities for reloading the missile cells at sea anyway and the strikedown crane was omitted in new ships. This provides space for 3-6 more missile cells. Having to go to a port to reload VLS cells takes a ship away for several weeks or more from where it was needed.
After 2010, it became obvious that navy missiles capable of intercepting ballistic missiles were now more essential because Iranian and North Korean anti-ship ballistic missiles became a growing threat. This meant ships had to fire more missiles for missile defense as well as other tasks like anti-aircraft, anti-ship, anti-submarine, and land bombardment. It became increasingly likely that a ship would run out of some types of missiles.