plawolf
Lieutenant General
I think cold launch missiles require more maintenance and care than hot launched missiles. With a hot launched missile, only the missile itself needs to work. With cold launch, the gas powered pistons needs to work as well as the missile itself.
Hot launched systems also gives greater flexibility in terms if the types of missiles it can take. A cold launched system needs to be calibrated to the missile type used. As the S400 system shows, it is possible to have the same tube launch different missile types and even quad packing is possible, but I would dare say that there is an upper limit to what kind if weapon a cold launched system can handle that would be lower than a hot launched one.
If you look at a cold launch canister, you will see that a sizable portion of the lower section is used to store the cold launch system. The bigger the missiles the system needs to launch, the bigger the cold launch system and the deeper the whole package. On a warship where space is at a premium, a more compact, flexible and less maintenance intensive system would be preferable.
So to sum up the above, for two systems designed with exactly the same dimension tube, you would be able to pack a longer and heavier missile into a hot launched tube than a cold launched one.
With regards to accidental explosions, well the exhaust venting channels and open VLS doors would direct the vast majority of the energy of any blast safely out of the ship. Being able to survive an accidental detonation would also be one of the primary design requirements for multi-cell ship based VLS, so the walls of the cells would have been tested to withstand such a catastrophic malfunction before the system was certified.
The biggest advantage cold launched systems have over hot launched is in terms of being able to deal with a misfire. If the rocket engine on a cold launched missile fails, the missile will most likely just fall into the sea harmlessly after being propelled out of the cell, and the ship can operate as normal. If it was the cold launch gas piston that failed, it should be able to disarm the missile easily enough and again carry on as normal.
If a hot launched missile fails to light its engines, the missile is stuck, live, in the cell and poses a huge risk until it can be removed, which usually involves pulling into dock and getting bomb disposal in to help.
Hot launched systems also gives greater flexibility in terms if the types of missiles it can take. A cold launched system needs to be calibrated to the missile type used. As the S400 system shows, it is possible to have the same tube launch different missile types and even quad packing is possible, but I would dare say that there is an upper limit to what kind if weapon a cold launched system can handle that would be lower than a hot launched one.
If you look at a cold launch canister, you will see that a sizable portion of the lower section is used to store the cold launch system. The bigger the missiles the system needs to launch, the bigger the cold launch system and the deeper the whole package. On a warship where space is at a premium, a more compact, flexible and less maintenance intensive system would be preferable.
So to sum up the above, for two systems designed with exactly the same dimension tube, you would be able to pack a longer and heavier missile into a hot launched tube than a cold launched one.
With regards to accidental explosions, well the exhaust venting channels and open VLS doors would direct the vast majority of the energy of any blast safely out of the ship. Being able to survive an accidental detonation would also be one of the primary design requirements for multi-cell ship based VLS, so the walls of the cells would have been tested to withstand such a catastrophic malfunction before the system was certified.
The biggest advantage cold launched systems have over hot launched is in terms of being able to deal with a misfire. If the rocket engine on a cold launched missile fails, the missile will most likely just fall into the sea harmlessly after being propelled out of the cell, and the ship can operate as normal. If it was the cold launch gas piston that failed, it should be able to disarm the missile easily enough and again carry on as normal.
If a hot launched missile fails to light its engines, the missile is stuck, live, in the cell and poses a huge risk until it can be removed, which usually involves pulling into dock and getting bomb disposal in to help.
