Then who made the reloading at sea YT videos aboard Navy ships?
Which ships exactly? What exactly were they loading? When did they do it?
L
The Ticos and Flt I Arleigh Burkes had cranes that could be used for reloading at sea, but I have never seen VLS canisters transferred by unrep. We did use our crane to move some missiles (while underway) a couple times when we had a VLS module fail. On later ships, the Navy got rid of the cranes, as they took up 3 missile cells each, or 6 total.
Since a CVN deploys with 3 or 4 Aegis ships, allowing one or two to sprint to port to reload is acceptable. Even if we did unrep VLS canisters, it would require calm seas. I’ve reloaded hundreds of missiles into VLS dockside, and it takes a day to load a 61 cell launcher under ideal conditions. When unrepping, you would have to first offload the empty canisters to the AOE, prepare/configure the launchers for new missiles and load them as they are transferred. All this with 3,000+lb, 25’ long missile canisters that have to be transferred, moved on deck, lifted vertically and slid into the launcher. Anything but calm seas would make it an extremely dangerous evolution.
People want an Air Defense Destroyer/Cruiser to be a master of all trades. Air Defense for a CVN Battle Group, ASW for CVN Battle Group, Anti Surface Strike, Area Ballistic Missile Defense, Long Range Shore Strike, Naval Shore/Air Gunnery. A Cruiser/Destroyer can only carry so much ordinance, and Ticos/Burkes are nearly “Armory Ships” as configured. They are already carrying over a hundred missiles in VLS, 8 Harpoons, 11 RAMs (+ reloads), a dozen or more MK 54 Torpedoes, 600/1200 rounds of 5” gun ammo, plus 25mm, CIWS, .50 cal and more, not to mention armed helos with additional torpedoes and anti-surface capabilities.
From a strike and long range air defense standpoint, more cells would be great. From a self defense standpoint, the new ESSM Blk 2 is a huge improvement that has largely solved any desire for more self defense missiles. Loading 32 cells with these gives you 128 medium range missiles with 30+ miles range and active radar guidance in just 1/3 or 1/4 of your cells, leaving plenty of room for SM-6 for long range air defense/hypersonic strike, SM-3 for Ballistic Missile defense, Tomahawks/LRASM for strike/anti-ship, and ASROCs for ASW. SSGN subs in a CVN Strike Group can carry a 154 Tomahawks, freeing up VLS cells on surface combatants for air defense.