US Navy soldiers undergo missile reloading training. According to the US Defense News website, recently, US Secretary of the Navy, Del Toro, announced at a meeting that he will restart sea missile reloading training to change the embarrassing situation where US Navy ships had to return to port for resupply after running out of anti-aircraft missiles in the Red Sea waters and engaging with the Houser armed forces. What is the significance of the re elevation of sea reloading technology, which was once abandoned by the US Navy? What are the development prospects of this technology? Currently, many naval vessels are equipped with missile vertical launch systems due to low loading efficiency and abandonment. As a shipborne weapon system with a large payload, high launch efficiency, and the ability to engage in 360 ° all-round combat, vertical launch systems play an important role in air defense, missile defense, long-range strikes, and anti-ship operations, and are the main "firepower" of modern naval maritime operations. The vertical launch system brings convenience to maritime operations, but its special vertical launch cylinder design also poses many difficulties in ammunition loading. To ensure safe loading of ammunition, during the precise loading of missiles into the internal launch unit of the ship, the crane arm must lift the missile vertically, slowly approach the launch port on the deck under manual guidance, and then accurately fill it into the launch barrel. Since the launch of the vertical launch system, most ships equipped with this system have chosen to dock in ports or bases and use heavy cranes on shore for missile loading. On the battlefield where every second counts, returning ships to port and reloading missiles will inevitably consume a lot of time. In order to improve operational efficiency, the technology of reloading missiles at sea has emerged. Simply put, reloading at sea is the process of reloading missiles from shipborne vertical launch systems from port terminals to ships sailing on the sea surface. This approach is not innovative. As early as the 1970s, the US Navy considered the ability to reload at sea and tested the reloading mechanism when designing the MK-41 vertical launch system. This mechanism mainly includes a folding telescopic crane, which is usually folded and placed near the vertical launch unit. Once missile loading is required, the crane is quickly deployed to lift and load the missiles from the supply ship into various vertical launch units. The US Navy once had high hopes for the reloading mechanism, hoping to use it to improve the operational efficiency of ships. However, the use conditions of sea reloading technology are harsh, the operation is difficult, and the loading efficiency is low. In addition, this mechanism occupies valuable combat space on the ship, reducing the number of vertical launch units carried. With the end of the Cold War, the US Navy faced less pressure in maritime operations and ultimately abandoned the technology of reloading at sea. The changes in naval warfare have given rise to demand. Nowadays, with the changing situation on the sea battlefield, the US Navy has re introduced this technology, which has been out of use for a long time. There are mainly two reasons behind this. The new form of maritime operations poses new challenges. Currently, low-cost and consumable weapons represented by drones are emerging in large numbers on the battlefield. During the engagement with these aerial targets, the shipborne vertical launch system can launch anti-aircraft missiles to intercept them, but shooting down a large number of drones requires a significant amount of missile reserves. In the current combat situation, the missile supply cycle of ships is greatly reduced
Edit：Luo yu Responsible editor：Wang er dong
Source：81.cn
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