A U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer and Ready Reserve crane ship demonstrated the service’s latest at-sea VLS reloading efforts last week.
The U.S. Navy demonstrated new techniques and technologies for supplying the fleet’s vertical launch systems on the water during a Pentagon-led command and control exercise, marking the service’s latest effort in developing dedicated at-sea VLS reloading amid surface fleet missile capacity concerns in the Red Sea and the Indo-Pacific.
USS Farragut (DDG 99) received reloads to its fore and aft Mark 41 vertical launch from the ready reserve crane ship SS Gopher State (T-ACS 4) off Norfolk Naval Base last week during a missile reload evolution during Large Scale Exercise 2025. Spanning multiple combatant commands and hosting several allied partners, the Department of Defense-level command and control drills seek to test the service’s ability to respond to global challenges.
Equipped with 96 missile cells, the Flight IIA Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer would usually have to undertake a lengthy process of pierside reloading to replenish its batteries. A single cell could take up to—if not more— half an hour to load a missile. In the event of a conflict, this resupply method would take crucial warships off the frontline and potentially leave them vulnerable in port, which could be exploited by adversaries such as the Houthis in the Red Sea or the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force across the Indo-Pacific.
“The ability to conduct safe and efficient vertical missile rearm at sea is a critical warfighting enabler,” stated Lt. Cmdr. John Sefcik, a weapons officer aboard Farragut, in a U.S. Navy release on the VLS reloading at-sea evolution. Sefcik also stressed how these efforts increase the “fleet’s lethality and operational reach.”
Carlos Del Toro, former Secretary of the Navy, highlighted the benefits and necessity of at-sea VLS reloading since 2022. These advocacy and developmental efforts culminated in a demonstration of the transferable reloading arm mechanism (TRAM) on the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Chosin (CG 65) last fall. Del Toro claimed that the VLS reloading capability would be “game-changing” for the fleet’s surface combatants.
In Norfolk, personnel from Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group and Navy Cargo Handling Battalion One conducted the test. Two separate methods were used to reload the VLS banks, with the fore receiving a traditional crane reload and the aft taking on a new frame-style reloader. The reload on Farragut’s aft VLS bank included a frame that attached over the Mark 41 cells, from which another mechanism holding two missile containers was brought over from the Gopher State. According to the release, the reloads were made possible by the ready reserve ship’s heavy lift cranes.
Compared to last year’s TRAM test, last week’s demonstration displayed an increased reload rate of two missiles, which could drastically speed up the service’s efforts to rearm its missile cells. While the design seen at Large Scale Exercise 2025 is yet to be determined, the system appears to resemble some elements of Leidos’ Speed Reloader. Debuted at Surface Navy Association 2025, the reloading system pre-loads missile canisters into a frame, which are then carried via heavy lift cranes onto a warship’s VLS to be lowered into the cells.
The U.S. Navy previously attempted to pursue at-sea VLS reloading capabilities, but these efforts were shuttered following the end of the Cold War, the lack of a near-peer adversary, and the risks posed by motion issues in moderate sea states. In recent years, the service has examined the concept amid great power competition challenges in the North Atlantic, Middle East, and Indo-Pacific.
“Rearming warships at sea is a capability that adds significant complexity for those who choose to challenge us in conflict. NAVELSG has been at the center of developing our Navy’s rearming options — from routine pierside operations to expeditionary, non-permissive environments, and now at sea, globally. NAVELSG’s commitment to the evolution of the Navy’s rearming capabilities, flexibility, and proficiency is unwavering, and I look forward to where we go from here,” said RAdm. Charles Kirol, commander of the Navy Expeditionary Logistics Support Group, in the release.
