In early October, the U.S. Navy reloaded a destroyer’s missile tubes using a crane on an auxiliary ship pulled alongside the destroyer, rather than a crane on an established pier.
Reloading a vertical launching system, or VLS, is a challenging maneuver, given the crane must hold missile canisters vertically, while slowly lowering the explosives into the system’s small opening in the ship deck.
It’s also a maneuver the Navy cannot yet do at sea. This demonstration took place while the destroyer Spruance was tied to the pier at Naval Air Station North Island, as a first step in creating a more expeditionary rearming capability.
Of course, that would be a big deal. I went out with the RAN one day, many years ago, to watch a ‘simple’ replenishment op, and it was a long way from simple. Just getting fuel and food stores from the supply ship (HMAS Success for supply ship buffs) onto a guided missile frigate took a couple of hours and involved lots of ropes and lines and ye olde cargo nets.
I imagine lowering a missile into a VLS system would be orders of magnitude more difficult, meaning that, for now, it has to be done dockside.
When I was writing WoC, I was thinking about scarcity, but only in terms of the uptimers having the weapons and ammo they brought along with them and nothing more. That was a main driver of the narrative.
But if I’d really been thinking about it, I’d also have done something about this. It’s such a big pain point that, narratively, you can’t ignore it.
I think you had enough pain points covered that you shouldn't beat yourself up over this. Maybe a couple of serious navy buffs thought that you really dropped the ball but, as for the rest of us lovers of 'splodey, I think you did just fine.
You are making this a bigger point than it would have been JB.
First off you would have to have VLS equipped ships in the first place. In Axis the Halsey class ships (which you probably would have based on the Charles F. Adams / Perth class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_F._Adams-class_destroyer ) are equipped with Terrier/Tartar launchers. Video of a Terrier launcher is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNm24GgHNsI These could fire only one or two missiles at a time and have large magazine (16-40 rounds) below decks. Those magazines can be loaded like a gun magazine so with elbow grease.
Replenishment can be done in multiple ways. Sure you can fire over a line and bring in a fuel line or pallets, but what is done also is Vertical Replenishment (Vertrep). Here you use a helicopter with a load underneath or if you use a Chinook or a Stallion you can have the stuff in the cargo hold.
VLS only came into play with the 6th ship in the Ticonderoga class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticonderoga-class_cruiser and the refit of the Spruance class. The early Arleigh Burkes had cranes aboard, but those were almost never used. A ship a sea tends to yaw and roll unless the sea is extremely calm. And you are trying to put square pegs into square holes. Every missile is in its own little box and a Tico has 2 x 61 tube launchers so 122 holes to fill.
If you were to want to remedy this, I would combine three types of ship into one.
The first is the simplest: Replenishment. The new ship should have big holds to store ammo, missiles and torpedoes. Food and fuel would be nice too, but can be offloaded via other means.
Second is a type of ship now more or less forgotten. The so-called tender supported flotillas of submarines (sub tender) or destroyers (destroyer tenders) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyer_tender These ships could perform maintenance on either the destroyer itself or on it’s torpedoes.
Lastly I would add a floating dry dock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_dock#Floating If you want to do maintenance, do it in an environment you can get you work done, and in a dock you can.
So to combine this you need a wee bit of real estate. So let’s think a bit outside the box. Remember the Liparus from the 70s James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me? The former Berghe Stahl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Berge_Stahl could be a candidate with enough room to simultaneously service two decent size cruisers or other warships. And with it’s bulk it can accommodate it’s own airstrip, its own defensive armament, stores and a decent lake of fuel.
I think you had enough pain points covered that you shouldn't beat yourself up over this. Maybe a couple of serious navy buffs thought that you really dropped the ball but, as for the rest of us lovers of 'splodey, I think you did just fine.
But present day October 2022 is something that doesn't occur in WoC, so you shouldn't feel so bad.
Amateurs study tactics, professionals study logistics. Just ask the Russians.
You are making this a bigger point than it would have been JB.
First off you would have to have VLS equipped ships in the first place. In Axis the Halsey class ships (which you probably would have based on the Charles F. Adams / Perth class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_F._Adams-class_destroyer ) are equipped with Terrier/Tartar launchers. Video of a Terrier launcher is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNm24GgHNsI These could fire only one or two missiles at a time and have large magazine (16-40 rounds) below decks. Those magazines can be loaded like a gun magazine so with elbow grease.
Replenishment can be done in multiple ways. Sure you can fire over a line and bring in a fuel line or pallets, but what is done also is Vertical Replenishment (Vertrep). Here you use a helicopter with a load underneath or if you use a Chinook or a Stallion you can have the stuff in the cargo hold.
VLS only came into play with the 6th ship in the Ticonderoga class https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ticonderoga-class_cruiser and the refit of the Spruance class. The early Arleigh Burkes had cranes aboard, but those were almost never used. A ship a sea tends to yaw and roll unless the sea is extremely calm. And you are trying to put square pegs into square holes. Every missile is in its own little box and a Tico has 2 x 61 tube launchers so 122 holes to fill.
If you were to want to remedy this, I would combine three types of ship into one.
The first is the simplest: Replenishment. The new ship should have big holds to store ammo, missiles and torpedoes. Food and fuel would be nice too, but can be offloaded via other means.
Second is a type of ship now more or less forgotten. The so-called tender supported flotillas of submarines (sub tender) or destroyers (destroyer tenders) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroyer_tender These ships could perform maintenance on either the destroyer itself or on it’s torpedoes.
Lastly I would add a floating dry dock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_dock#Floating If you want to do maintenance, do it in an environment you can get you work done, and in a dock you can.
So to combine this you need a wee bit of real estate. So let’s think a bit outside the box. Remember the Liparus from the 70s James Bond flick The Spy Who Loved Me? The former Berghe Stahl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Berge_Stahl could be a candidate with enough room to simultaneously service two decent size cruisers or other warships. And with it’s bulk it can accommodate it’s own airstrip, its own defensive armament, stores and a decent lake of fuel.