Jeff, you best believe these boys;
...have a handle on everything that's going on with the Varyag....Hells bells>>>They know when the shipyard workers are taking a smoke break....Too bad they cannot share some pics with us....
China Navy Power
- Thread starter Rising China
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Jeff, you best believe these boys;
...have a handle on everything that's going on with the Varyag....Hells bells>>>They know when the shipyard workers are taking a smoke break....Too bad they cannot share some pics with us....
Wrong, they're never "found out" before PLA released the info.
I just checked. As early as 2004, many sources in China already claimed A/C construction started.
So I don't draw a firm conclusion here.
Fishhead, read my above post. Check that link. SpaWars won't give you much information on that site about exactly what they do. But ,trust me, Their job is to gather information. And believe you me that's what they do. 'Nuff said.
I am reading some Chinese site info now, damed it's so long, too much stuff.
Unconfirmed claim:
The start of construction was approved on Aug 30, 2004. Very intersting, since it's 2005 claim.
I believe pics did leak out on the Yaun. But either way, a small diesel electric sub and tanks are a whole lot easier to hide than a full-size aircraft carrier construction.
...and that's form the general public. I have no doubts that the US intelligence and recon offices know already what's going on.
To your point, they are probably not going to talk to the rest of us...but there are still some very good commerical and public satellite assets that people are using.
We shall see. I still believe the Varyag comes first in 2009-2010, followed in 2014-2015 or so by an indigenous carrier. But that's just my opnion based on what we do know. I could very easily be proven wrong.
LOL, I was the first one to post that pic in the western sites. Then 2nd day, the news were everywhere.
In the US it can be two years after 1st steel cut before they lay the keel. Then another good 2-3 years before you can see that what is being built is definitely a carrier. So...if what you say is true, it will still be something like 2009 before this report would be obviously a carrier on the ways, and another 3 years after that before she is christened. 2012 even if this is a good report.
This is what I got from a pretty informed source on these Chinese military forums.
"
沙钢没有并到宝钢吧，那就不可能。目前有生产航母钢（甲）板的，国内企业只有两个半（半个是因为没有完全完工）。生产出来能否达到技术指标，是另一个问题，耐腐蚀、强度、抗冲击性等，现在还没有那个企业敢说已经“行”。"
basically, he mentionned there are 2 and half domestic corporation producing steel deck needed for aircraft carrier. Baosteel is likely one of them from what he mentionned here. Also, half mentionned, because the third one has yet to finish producing the steel. Now here is the question, whether the steel will reach the specs after they are produced. In terms of being able to face the corrussion, the toughness against impact of aircraft taking off/landing, no corporation in China can actually say it's capable for sure of handling this. So, looks like they are probably evaluating the steel produced by these factories.
I read news 2 years ago that Baosteel mutured the capability to produce the super thick, super size deck steel plate, clearly hinted for A/C deck usage.
Rust-resistence is really not a big deal since all warship grade steel needs that feature, and China can produce that no problem. The key technology for A/C is the thickness and size of the steel plate for the deck.