Navy working through several concepts for re-arm at sea, official says

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD -- Re-arming at sea is a Navy priority that has been front of mind amid logistical challenges in the Red Sea, a Navy official said today at Sea-Air-Space.

“We've learned a lot of lessons from the expeditionary reload teams, but one of the lessons that we've also learned is we really need the capability to reload at sea, re-arm at sea,” Vice Adm. Jeffery Jablon, deputy chief of naval operations for installations and logistics, said Tuesday.

The Navy is working on several different concepts right now for re-arming at sea, Jablon said, and has run through various exercises. The capability will be a “game changer,” he added.

“We're continuing to work on that capability, and I see that coming in the near future, to enable us to re-arm at sea,” he said.

In October, the Navy demonstrated the first successful test of the Transferrable Reload At-sea Method in the open ocean, after a previous land-based demonstration.

“Today, we proved just how game-changing TRAM truly is -- and what a powerful deterrent it will be to our competitors,” previous Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said at the time. “This demonstration marks a key milestone on the path to perfecting this capability and fielding it for sustained operations at sea.”

In the compromise fiscal year 2025 defense authorization bill, lawmakers called for the Navy to define a clear strategy for a re-arm at sea capability and provide cost and schedule estimates for fielding this ability in three years or less.