At the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) webinar event held on October 8, 2024, Naval News asked U.S. Navy’s VADM James Pitts, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Requirements and Capabilities, whether the U.S. Navy will have enough vertical launch system (VLS) cells in the future with the retirement of the Ticonderoga-class cruisers and the Ohio-class guided missile submarines (SSGNs).
The cruisers have 122 VLS launch tubes each and the SSGNs have 154 VLS cells for each submarine. As of Fall 2024, there are 12 active Ticonderoga-class cruisers and four Ohio-class SSGNs in the U.S. Navy’s fleet. That gives a total of 1,464 VLS cells for the cruisers and 616 VLS cells for the SSGNs for a combined total of 2,080 VLS cells. The SSGN’s VLS cells are used for launching Tomahawk cruise missiles whereas the cruisers’ VLS cells can launch Standard and Evolved Sea Sparrow surface-to-air missiles, anti-submarine rockets (ASROC), and Tomahawk land attack cruise missiles.
Naval News asked VADM James Pitts this question: “There is concern that the U.S. Navy will not have enough VLS cells for Tomahawk with the retirement of the SSGNs. The Virginia Payload Module is a slow remedy start. Why hasn’t the U.S. Navy built Arsenal Ships, more Mark 70 Payload Modules, armed LUSVs [Large Unmanned Surface Vessels], or bought Adaptable Deck Launchers?”
VADM Pitts replied:
“In the near term, I will tell you that we have plenty of VLS cells for the Tomahawk missiles that we have in inventory…both on the surface and under the sea. But I readily admit we are losing some significant capability when we decommission our SSGNs in the coming years. And we’re exploring options to what some follow-on capability may or may not be. And as you pointed out, in the interim, the replacement capability is building the Virginia Payload Module for the Virginia-class submarines. And we’ll build a number of them to help mitigate the loss of the SSGNs. And on the surface side, we’re continually looking and exploring our family of unmanned systems on the surface side from small all the way up to large and how the payloads that we put in each and every one of them may contribute to replacing or providing some additional VLS capability. But in the near term, we have enough VLS cells for the munitions that we have in inventory.”
Comments
Brent Sadler, Senior Research Fellow, Naval Warfare and Advanced Technology, Allison Center for National Security at the Heritage Foundation, offered his views to Naval News.
“As for VLS cells available, there is no way for our Navy to avoid a significant drop later this decade. The SSGNs are just too large a capacity that we have no ready replacement.
See the last long-range shipbuilding plan here: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24487775/rtc-pb25-shipbuilding_plan.pdf
Heritage has written on the need to increase Columbia-class production and Virginia-class [Virginia Payload Module] VPM variants to mitigate this but will arrive too late to prevent a reduced capacity.
Additionally, it has been recommended by me to increase [the] capacity to launch long-range strikes using Tomahawks from large or medium unmanned surface vessels. As well as expanding the [United States Marine Corps] USMC capacity and postured forces in the First Island Chain to launch Tomahawks from shore.
Only a combination of the above will blunt the drop in firepower baked into Navy plans.”
Jim Fein, Research Assistant for National Security and European Affairs at The Heritage Foundation, also provided his insights to Naval News as Fein looked into munitions production.
“Here is a quick article I wrote analyzing the Navy’s munitions inventory. BL [bottom line] is that the Navy has ~4,000 TLAMs (per WSJ [Wall Street Journal]) and the mathematical maximum number of Standard missiles in the Navy’s arsenal is 11,000, but almost certainly far less. The true number is not public.
The trajectory of VLS-launched munitions is either flat or declining. The Navy did not request funding for any TLAMs [Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles] this year, and SM [Standard Missiles] procurement has been flat for years at 125. The US needs both more VLS cells and more munitions to launch from them. The Navy has ~10,000 VLS cells, but less than 15,000 TLAMs and SMs to launch from them.”
