Mk 41 Vertical Launching System

A Mk-41 launch system during an inspection

The Mk 41 Vertical Launching System (often referred to as Mk 41 or Mk 41 VLS ) is a vertical launch system for missiles from which a wide range of guided missiles can be fired. It was originally developed for the Aegis combat ships of the United States Navy , but later it was also used on many larger surface ships in the western world. The Mk 41 VLS has been in production since 1982 and is currently the most flexible and powerful system of its kind.

development

The Mk 41 VLS was designed to eliminate the weaknesses of guided missile starters from the Cold War era . The arm starters in use up to then could only hold one or two guided missiles ready to fire and then had to be reloaded using a complicated system, which in practice proved to be slow and error-prone. Especially after the introduction of the Aegis combat system , which can capture and track a large number of targets, these starters formed a bottleneck in target combat. The Mk 41 VLS was seen as the solution, since reloading in combat was completely unnecessary and the required mechanics (cover flap on the ship's deck) were extremely simple and did not paralyze the entire system in the event of a failure. The first system was installed on the Aegis guided missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill , the lead ship of the second batch of the Ticonderoga class , and was put into service with her in 1986. Other classes of ships followed later, such as the Arleigh Burke class or the German frigates of the F124 class.

description

Launch of an SM-3 guided missile

The Mk 41 VLS is divided into individual modules with eight start cells each and fires using the “hot start” process, in which the missile's rocket motor is ignited in the barrel. Each module has its own power distribution, communication infrastructure and damage control systems, which means that a failure only makes a maximum of eight guided missiles of the respective module incapable of combat. To prevent the warheads from exploding in the event of fire or enemy hits, the cells can also be flooded with seawater. An arrangement of modules can be accessed from the inside through a narrow corridor in order to be able to carry out repairs without complex removal. The pipe diameter of the Mk 41 VLS is standardized, but there are variants with different lengths in order to be able to save space depending on the planned range of uses of the ship. The maximum length of the missile thus varies between 7.6 and 5.2 meters.