For the US Navy, the missile load of its cruisers and destroyers is one of the most critical power parameters. As not only does it need to be too large to be unleashed en masse against a powerful enemy (with China as the main potential adversary), but also to have a supply on each ship before it needs to be replenished. As the latter today, it can only be done at certain US port-bases internationally.
However, this problem has been studied in the USA for several years, trying to find a solution by reloading the Mk41 vertical loading cells, at sea. Where e.g. a destroyer will be approached by a large supply ship and with special cranes will refill its cells with a variety of missiles (anti-aircraft, cruise, anti-submarine).
Α related test of the TRAM (Transferrable Re-Arming Mechanism) loading system in real conditions is due this year. This is a special crane, on the warship which “receives” the canister of each missile, supporting it along almost its entire length (so it does not hang over one end to create a safety problem on the open sea), and then brings it in an upright position and inserts it into its vertical firing cell. This particular crane has already been tested on land (the photo below shows its mechanism), but a realistic test is also needed to see how it works.
