The system allows warships to be reloaded at sea, which is crucial to any future conflict in the Pacific, US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro said.

A U.S. destroyer can fire dozens of cruise missiles within minutes, but reloading back in port can take two months. In a war against China, that could be a fatal weakness.

The United States Navy has built a new prototype reloading system for replenishing the missiles onboard a warship in a faster way. Called Transferrable Reload At-sea (TRAM), can reduce the time needed to for missile reloading on warships from months to just days.

The U.S. Navy destroyers USS Stockdale and USS O’Kane repelled an attack against American ships by Yemen-based Houthi rebels, CENTCOM says.