The class received substantial modernization, but the original hull imposed hard limits. Italy considered removing the trainable Standard launcher and fitting a vertical-launch system in its place. Available spacing and the existing framing made the conversion impractical. Even a ship with useful growth margin can reach a point where structural geometry blocks an attractive weapons change. The example explains why an older launcher cannot always be exchanged for VLS through a straightforward refit.
Notable Point · 34:52-35:32
Why a vertical-launch conversion was impractical
A proposal to replace the trainable Standard launcher with vertical-launch cells ran into the physical limits of spacing and hull framing.