The beauty of VLS is that you dont need to touch it very much when you are underway.

Quite correct and when shut down as part of NBC procedures you don’t need to send some poor sap topside to reload and get exposed to nasties.

21″ fish, and similar cannisters intended to be fired through the same tubes, are remarkably awkward things to shunt around a ship.

And then some! I had a vision of using below decks. Thus removing some of the design pressure on laying helo ops, masts, VLS, uncle Tom cobbly and all all on the single plane. The issue there of course being penetration of the hull with potential NBC and NBCD issues.

I’m pretty much resigned to ladies weapons as regards skimmers and their fish.

I think we stand on the brink of a considerable revolution in naval battlespace coverage and that is the move to long endurance offboard sensors.

Agreed.

There is potential for AEW and AESW (clumsy new made up acronym I know) feeding all units. AAW destroyers as pickets far from high value units is a mugs game but give those vessels their own high endurance AEW and suddenly they look much more survivable.

Al