Power and replenishment for sustained carrier strike

A carrier has to power its own movement and crew accommodation as well as the systems that support aviation, with these demands growing as equipment becomes more complex. Its aircraft give a task group aviation that travels with it and can provide repeated long-range strikes. Aircraft weapons can be transferred from a supply ship more readily than an escort's vertical-launch system can be reloaded at sea. VLS reloads require bulky loads to be carried by the supply vessel and craned between ships, making storage capacity and good weather important constraints. Transferring missiles and bombs alongside a carrier avoids that same reloading problem. For a navy requiring persistent heavy strike, sustaining the air group can therefore be more efficient than replacing it with missile-armed escorts.