US Navy will get re-arm at sea capability to give it edge in China conflict

I saw some videos of this system in a demonstration. A couple of questions came to mind. First, you have to remove the used cell liner (that is reused I believe) before loading the new cell liner/missile. What happens to the used liners? Secondly, to remove the old and install the new seems to take about 30+ minutes (at best). This means that to reload 32 cells would take half a day (at least). Thirdly, if you bring across enough reloads, where will you store them during the reload process? You would also have to relocate the transfer rigs to various parts of the ship to work with both the fwd and aft Mk 41's
 
The article is paywalled. Is this the same crane that used to be installed in VLS systems, taking up 3 cells? Or have they made a new design?
 
Hobbes said:
The article is paywalled. Is this the same crane that used to be installed in VLS systems, taking up 3 cells? Or have they made a new design?
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No, it's a new design. It's a much simpler rigid-boom crane, that is moved on rail trolley (rails placed at sides of Mk-41 launcher). The missile container is pushed into holding rings of crane boom horizontally, then crane is moved toward the empty cell, the boom is erected vertically, and missile container (secured by rings) is lowered into cell.

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Oof, really don't want to get caught out by a pop-up attack with that in place.
 
That's the nice thing about the Arleigh Burke and Ticonderoga designs: they have two VLS clusters, so even if one is out of commission they aren't defenceless.
 
Hobbes said:
That's the nice thing about the Arleigh Burke and Ticonderoga designs: they have two VLS clusters, so even if one is out of commission they aren't defenceless.
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But not the Constellations.
 

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