Reloading vertical-launch cells at sea would allow a ship with 32 or 48 cells to replenish before its next engagement. More cells still help, but replenishment changes the importance of the initial magazine size over repeated engagements. Cold War attempts to install a crane in place of missiles show that at-sea reloading had already received attention. Those cranes were intended to permit reloading under certain conditions. The criticism is that this effort went little further despite the long service history of VLS.
Notable Point · 3:18-5:53
VLS endurance depends on reloading between engagements
A 32- or 48-cell ship could sustain repeated engagements if it could reload at sea, yet early crane-based experiments received little follow-through.