A new bill from the U.S. House of Representatives wants to hear the Navy’s plans for at-sea reloading of vertical launching system (VLS) cells on U.S. Navy warships.
The House Armed Services Committee’s markup of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2027 includes provisions for a briefing on the service’s efforts in implementing and progressing this reloading capability.
“The committee recognizes the operational need for near-term, expeditionary approaches to sustain naval surface-combatant operations in contested maritime environments,” read the bill draft. “The committee notes that uncertainty regarding the availability of future at-sea rearming capabilities underscores the importance of identifying and advancing feasible, near-term rearming and rapid-replenishment concepts that can be executed using existing platforms and infrastructure.”
In the draft bill, House authorizers request the Navy to deliver a briefing detailing an overview of requirements, challenges, near-term options, risk analysis and investments needed to accelerate the implementation of at-sea vertical launch system rearming.
Originally envisioned at the end of the Cold War, the resurgence of technologies and methods for reloading the VLS cells American warships while at-sea has come as Washington prepares against new large-scale naval threats in the Indo-Pacific.
Enabling American guided-missile destroyers to reload their missile banks while underway would provide a crucial capability to keep warships in the fight longer. Currently, American warships need to return to port facilities to conduct lengthy reloads of their 96 to 112 missile cells. This may prove crucial in a potential conflict in the Western Pacific, where U.S. naval facilities are far and few. The service’s push to renew its work on at-sea VLS reloading was one of the key projects of former Secretary of the Navy, Carlos Del Toro.
In 2024, the U.S. Navy installed the Cold War-era Transferrable Reloading Mechanism – also known as the Transferrable Reload At-sea Method – aboard USS Chosin (CG 65) and demonstrated an underway reload of a missile canister off San Diego. John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory is working to redesign the 1990s concept and examining additional techniques for the reloading of VLS cells at-sea.
The following year saw the use of another method to reload a destroyer at Large Scale Exercise 2025, an annual globe-spanning drill testing the service’s command and control and new capabilities. This test involved the simultaneous reloading of both VLS magazines from a crane-equipped vessel while moored.
Last month’s budgetary documents showcased the Navy’s plan for testing at-sea reloading methods for VLS cells, attack boat torpedoes, anti-ship missiles and more systems using the service’s expeditionary support docks.
