Vertical launching system

Typically, each cell can hold a number of different types of missiles, allowing the ship flexibility to load the best set for any given mission.

In addition to greater firepower, VLS is much more damage tolerant and reliable than the previous systems and has a lower radar cross-section (RCS).

When installed on an SSN (nuclear-powered attack submarine), a VLS allows a greater number and variety of weapons to be deployed, compared with using only torpedo tubes.

This potentially makes a hot-launch system relatively light, small, and economical to develop and produce, particularly when designed around smaller missiles.

Soft-launch provides the missile with a reduce interception rate allowing for shorter ranged engagements, reduces the IR signature of the ship and the obscurant of visibility by rendering the ship in efflux for several minutes; and most notably, the lack of hot efflux and reduced stress on the ship's structure allows for a much greater choice of launch systems, such as the lighter Mushroom Farm launcher whilst also still enabling installation into the heavier Mark 41 in a quad-pack or dual-packed configuration (4 or 2 missiles per cell) for a costly, but more space efficient option.

[8] Transporter erector launchers are wheeled or tracked land vehicles for the launch of surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles.

BAE Systems has filed patents relating to the use of Vertical Launch missiles from modified passenger aircraft.

Note: The above table does not include NATO navies which do not possess vertical launching systems, namely Albania, Croatia, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania and Slovenia.

An example of modern VLS cells, these being the Mk. 41 , on board USS San Jacinto
Video of launch of Sea Wolf missile from VLS cells, on board HMS Richmond (F239)
In December 1959, the U.S. Navy commissioned the USS George Washington (SSBN-598) as its first ballistic missile submarine , making it the first VLS-equipped submarine in the world to use nuclear rather than diesel propulsion
The Kara-class cruiser Azov was the first surface ship to be fitted with a true, 90º VLS. The system in question contained 4 revolving drums of 48 tubes for 5V55RM missiles
A Tomahawk missile canister being offloaded from a VLS aboard the Arleigh Burke -class destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur
A RIM-156A missile launching from a VLS cell on USS Lake Erie in 2008.
US Navy Mark 41 Tomahawk hot launch.
Shipborne launch of VL-SRSAM
SYLVER cells of the Italian destroyer Caio Duilio
Soviet missile cruiser Frunze firing a missile from the Tor VLS
Top view of the Ticonderoga -class USS Lake Champlain with VLS visible fore and aft as the gray boxes near the bow and stern of the ship