Arsenal ship

Depiction of an arsenal ship launching a missile
1995 depiction of an arsenal ship

An arsenal ship is a concept for a floating missile platform intended to have as many as five hundred vertical launch bays for large-sized missiles, most likely cruise missiles. In current U.S. naval thinking, such a ship would initially be controlled manually by an Aegis Cruiser, although plans that have long since been scrapped included control by AEW&C aircraft such as the E-2 Hawkeye and E-3 Sentry.