A ship needs the supporting computers and sensors whether it carries one eight-cell VLS block or six. Cutting the launcher fit can therefore save on weapons after the navy has already paid for much of the expensive combat system. The NFR-90 studies treated 48 VLS cells as the minimum for numerous single-mission escorts that could support one another. In the comparison given here, several successor ships nevertheless emerged with 32 or 40 cells, and fewer hulls were built than the earlier studies had envisaged. The criticism is that post-Cold War confidence in choosing when and where to fight displaced the more demanding magazine requirement.
Notable Point · 11:20-13:51
How navies bought the sensors but cut missile cells
NFR-90 and its successor designs show how navies retained expensive combat systems while shrinking the missile magazines those systems were meant to support.