I've got a question on the VLS. The inner walls of the square cell seem to be visible. And they're 69 pixels across. Then there's the circular opening though which the missile exits. Which seems to be 56 pixels across, as there's plenty of clearance between the edges of the circle and the cell walls.
Why so much clearance? Why a circular opening? Circular shape means the missile inside has to be even smaller, so the fins (Even if folded) still go through.
Also, this seems to be a hot launch. But where exactly is the exhaust coming from? Is it the from the circular tube? If so, that'd mean the missile would be even smaller still, as there's not enough room for the missile to take up maximum theoretical area of the circle and still have enough area for the hot exhausts to clear the tube.
Assuming 850mm inner wall distance, as suggested by that old research paper, the circle diameter works out to 690mm. Or roughly up to some 600mm for the missile body diameter, since there's got to be at least part of the folded fin sticking out for missile such as hq-9.
For missiles using hot exhaust, i don't really know how they do it, as the missile needs roughly the area of its diameter for the exhaust.
