How could a warship reload Mark 41 VLS cells at sea?
Short answerUse an internal magazine and rail-guided carriages that remain locked to the ship while removing empty canisters and inserting loaded ones.
NotesThe proposed arrangement borrows from automated carrier ammunition systems and older shipboard material-handling rails. An empty carriage would remove the spent canister and return it below before a loaded carriage rose from the magazine. Rails and locking wheels would keep the load aligned with the moving ship rather than letting it swing from a crane. Repeating that exchange along the battery could replenish cells while shielding most handling work inside the hull.