This is the first "big" exercise I have notice from. May be, it isn't the first one. But what can be the reason not to go the save way with aircraft shuttling between the carrier and an airbase? Other nations doing it the same way.
A few weeks ago the Russians lost a MiG-29 due to a fould deck.
They have been playing it safe for 4 years now. Eventually the training wheels need to come off.
The big joint exercise involving the Liaoning and dozens of aircraft and ships in the Bohai area, just before she set off on this long range cruise would have been the final test run.
As for the Russian carrier losses, well that Mig loss in particular seems just plain silly and entirely avoidable.
For one, that Mig was well within range of alternative land bases, so could have diverted, so it would have been little different to the Liaoning operating near the Chinese coast.
For another, it seems like the Russian training was just not up to sniff to allow such an embarrassment to happen.
The captain should know to the minute how long it should take his crew to un-fowl the arrest wires and/or replace parts of it that were damaged.
If it left the Mig little safety margin, a second plane with a full tank and drop tanks with buddy refuelling pod should have been launched to top up the Mig.
If repairs were running long overdue, or looked like it might, the two planes should have been diverted to a nearby land base while they sort it out.