The Armored Box Launcher (ABL) is a four-round protected launch container for the BGM-109 Tomahawk

BGM-109 Tomahawk

The Tomahawk is a long-range, all-weather, subsonic cruise missile. Introduced by General Dynamics in the 1970s, it was designed as a medium- to long-range, low-altitude missile that could be launched from a surface platform. It has been improved several times and, by way of corporate divestitures...

 Cruise Missile.

Fitted to the Iowa-class battleships

Iowa class battleship

The Iowa-class battleships were a class of fast battleships ordered by the United States Navy in 1939 and 1940 to escort the Fast Carrier Task Forces which would operate in the Pacific Theater of World War II. Six were ordered during the course of World War II, but only four were completed in...

 following their 1980s recommissioning upgrade, each ABL contains four ready-to-fire Tomahawks. The use of ABL's on these vessels rather than a non-armored solution was necessitated to enable the battleships to continue to exploit the capability provided by their heavy armor and reduce the vulnerability of the delicate missiles within. Eight ABL's were fitted to each of the four recommissioned battleships, providing 32 weapons to each ship. Some of the original dual 5 inch (127 mm) gun mounts were removed to fit the ABL's and the launchers are visible at right.

Aside from being fitted on to the United States Navy

United States Navy

The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...

's Iowa-class battleships, this system was also fitted on the nuclear powered cruisers, including the Long Beach

USS Long Beach (CGN-9)

USS Long Beach was a nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser in the United States Navy. She was the only ship of her class....

 and the Virginia-class

Virginia class cruiser

The Virginia-class nuclear guided-missile cruisers were a series of four double-ended guided-missile cruisers commissioned in the late 1970s, which served in the US Navy until the mid- to late-1990s...

 as well as some Spruance-class

Spruance class destroyer

The Spruance-class destroyer was developed by the United States to replace a large number of World War II-built Allen M. Sumner- and Gearing-class destroyers, and was the primary destroyer built for the U.S. Navy during the 1970s....

 destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

s. The cruisers and destroyers were fitted with two ABLs each for a total of 8 missiles.

Since then the Armored Box Launcher missile system has been phased out in favor of the more flexible, larger capacity Vertical Launching System (VLS)

Vertical Launching System

A vertical launching system is a system for holding and firing missiles on surface ships and submarines used by many navies around the world. Each VLS system consists of a number of cells, which can hold one or more missiles ready for firing...

. Some of the Spruance-class ships formerly fitted with ABL's were later refitted with VLS.

The Armored Box Launcher shares one common handicap with the Vertical Launching System: It can not be reloaded at sea. The ship in question must return to port in order to receive and load her ABLs.