Mark 41 Vertical Launching System

The Mark 41 Vertical Launching System is a shipborne missile canister launcher developed by Martin Marietta and Lockheed Martin for the United States Navy, with the vertical-launch concept drawn from work on the Aegis Combat System. It has been in service since 1986 and can fire a range of missile types from the same canisters, including RIM-66 Standard, RIM-156 Standard ER, RIM-161 SM-3 and RIM-174 SM-6 surface-to-air missiles, RGM-109 Tomahawk and Joint Strike Missile surface-to-surface missiles, and the RUM-139 VL-ASROC anti-submarine missile. Beyond the United States Navy, which mounts it on Ticonderoga-class cruisers, Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, Spruance-class destroyers and Zumwalt-class destroyers, it is also operated by Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/