The original development of the MK 41 Vertical Launch System (VLS) for US Navy cruisers and destroyers in the late 1970’s included a requirement to replenish ten VLS canisters per hour, day or night in Sea State 5 conditions.
The system installed consisted of a rig to transfer the VLS canister to the missile ship during UNREP (RAS); then deck handling the canister to a position where a crane could tilt up the canister over an empty cell and then lower the canister down into the cell. The crane itself was a commercial Swedish folding crane. It took three VLS cells to make room for the crane. An internal elevator raised or lowered the crane.
In actual use, the crane did not have the capacity to lift Tomahawk VLS canisters. They came later and were too heavy. In addition, in actual use, the crane was never able to reload more than three cells per hour, and was only able to do so up to Sea State 3 conditions. So the requirement was never met. In war time, for a 64 cell VLS, it would take over 20 hours to reload...meaning a DDG and a UNREP ship had to be alongside one another in an exposed condition for that long.
So, although all Burke I and II destroyers received it, and Ticonderoga cruisers, the process was discontinued because it was viewed that in light of the deficiencies, six additional missiles at sea ready to fire was more important. So, beginning with the Flight IIA Burke destroyers it was discontinued.
Here is a rare picture of a crane being used at sea to reload a canister.
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