Early Burkes gave up six missile positions to two built-in reload cranes. A crane occupied three positions in the nominal 32-cell forward launcher and another occupied three in the 64-cell aft launcher, leaving 29 forward and 61 aft. Reloading at sea remained an important Cold War requirement because a ship could exhaust its missiles during a continuing conflict. The arrangement traded ready ammunition capacity for a replenishment facility, although the crane system was awkward. Removing both cranes in later flights restored the full 96-cell magazine.
Notable Point · 9:58-11:41
Why early Burkes carried 90 VLS cells
Two reload cranes explain the early Burke's 90-cell magazine and the Cold War tradeoff between ready missiles and replenishment at sea.