January 10, 2025: Back in the 1990s the U.S. and Chinese navies both experimented with using TRAM, or Transportable Re-Arming Mechanism for reloading the Vertical Launch System or VLS cells that are now the standard on U.S. warships.

Back in the early 1980s American warships began using VLS cells to carry the many different types of missiles which ships used for attacking other ships, defeating air attacks, and bombarding land targets. Since 1982, nearly 12,000 VLS cells have been installed in 200 American and foreign warships. The most common VLS user is the American Burke class destroyer, with 90 VLS cells. There are currently 74 Burkes in service and by the 2030s there should be over 90 of them. At that point there will be over 8,000 VLS cells in all those Burkes.

The first ships to get VLS also received a strikedown crane so the cells could be reloaded at sea. By the 1990s new types of missiles were too heavy for the strikedown crane and it wasn't practical to install a larger and more powerful crane. Moreover, there were few opportunities for reloading the missile cells at sea anyway and the strikedown crane was omitted in new ships. This provided space for 3-6 more missile cells. Another problem was that going to a port to reload VLS cells meant a whip was unavailable for several weeks.

After 2010, it became obvious that navy missiles capable of intercepting ballistic missiles were now more essential because Iranian and North Korean anti-ship ballistic missiles became a growing threat. This meant ships had to fire more missiles for missile defense as well as other tasks like anti-aircraft, anti-ship, anti-submarine, and land bombardment. It became increasingly likely that a ship would run out of some types of missiles.

That meant ships had to get replacement missiles during cruises for their empty VLS cells. The problem was that most of the missiles were too heavy and unwieldy to be loaded while the ship was at sea. This eventually led to TRAM, which works because of its articulated crane that can keep a replacement missile canister stable enough. Tests found that the stability remained even with winds up to 50 kilometers an hour and waves up to 3.2 meters high. TRAM has worked in tests and by 2025 but TRAM was tested at sea in various sea conditions and found to work well enough to be installed on ships that needed it.

In the 1990s China had also developed a system similar to TRAM but decided they didn’t need it because they were developing ground-based anti-ship ballistic missiles that could fire at American warships far out to sea. China had a satellite constellation over the Pacific that tracked all ship movements 24/7. China expects to spot and destroy most of the U.S. Navy warships in the Western Pacific before they can get anywhere close to China. The Americans expect to use their SM3 anti-missile system against incoming Chinese anti-ship missiles. Most American navy ships are armed with SM3, which has also shot down space satellites. SM3 is launched from VLS cells and is one of the several kinds of missiles that TRAM will reload at sea.

In 2024 the U.S. Navy used dozens of SM3s to take down Iranian missiles fired at Israel. A similar number of SM3s were used against Iran-backed Yemen Houthi rebels firing missiles at ships in the Red Sea. Over 700 SM3s have been produced so far and the manufacturer has resumed production to replace missiles used and to build up a reserve. The navy also has a program to extend the use life of SM3s while also upgrading them. Missiles have a fixed shelf life and after ten to 20 years the missiles must be refurbished or scrapped. Currently the navy plans to refurbish SM3s into the 2030s.

Meanwhile the army is transferring some Patriot Missile systems to the navy where they are used on ships to augment the SM3. The Patriot PAC-3 missile has shot down missiles, including the hypersonic ones China is introducing in an effort to get past the SM3 interceptors.

China has intelligence ships that monitor American missile tests in the Pacific where Kwajalein Island has long been the center of missile testing. China knows what the American missiles can do and is constantly developing countermeasures. The U.S. has an advantage in that their SM3 and Patriot missiles have lots of combat experience. Chinese troops haven’t been in combat since 1979, when they fought combat experienced Vietnamese troops in a brief border war. The Chinese lost.