Didnt fzgfzy said in august that 002 wont start construction before Spring 2016 ? If we are seeing 001 being built, then i dont think that 002 is already under construction but...
Okay, first of all I want to correct you by saying the ship at Dalian is considered 001A.
Liaoning is 001.
001A means it is going to share some features with Liaoning but also some improvements. It might be a bit bigger, it might have some internal changes, etc. We don't really know.
And seeing 001A under construction has nothing to do with whether or not 002 could also be under construction or not -- the two are being built at different shipyards.
Actually i havent seen this hull (001) being built in 2014, The janes picture in 27 february shows the first pieces being assembled in the shipyard. Perhabs the modules were built before that.
I think that is what he means -- that 001A's modules could have began fabrication in 2013 and it was only early this year that we saw them begin to be assembled.
That takes us to 002. The issue is: what is the state of the chinese catapult program? prototype? operacional? still in drawing board? we just dont know. We havent (it least myself) seen any exemple in photos, leaked or not.
Kroko, jeeez you've been here for years now -- absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence.
More importantly, we've had a variety of fairly reliable rumours regarding both steam and EM catapult development and even directly from the Chinese navy itself (via Rear Admiral Ma Weiming) regarding the latter's existence and development.
Unless they are basing 002 on the ulyanovsk carrier that was being built with a ramp that would be replaced with catapults when they would complete development and be ready to deploy. Perhabs. But the thing is, without catapults, 002 will be just an enlarged 001 (if 002 is to be bigger than 001, that is. Could just be a catapult version of 001)
You're thinking about this the wrong way -- you are putting the fact that we have no solid picture evidence or detailed information of China's catapult programme(s) as more important than the persistent rumours over the years of what 002 would look like.
I'll describe how the logic should work, based on the precedence of rumours, evidence and lack of evidence in this case:
1: we get persistent, fairly reliable rumours that 002 will be CATOBAR
2: we wonder what stage China's catapult development is at and whether it could be ready for 002 or not
3: we appreciate that lack of evidence of China's catapult development doesn't mean it may not already be in advanced development
4: we appreciate that the persistent nature of the rumours could very well indicate by association, that the catapult programme (whether it is steam or EM) is likely mature enough to be used aboard 002 or expected to be mature enough to be used aboard 002 by the time it arrives
5: we wait to see what happens, with the understanding that based off present information and logic, 002 is expected to be a CATOBAR carrier and that the lack of detailed evidence around China's catapult development progress does not trump the much greater weight of the last few years of consistent rumours saying 002 will be CATOBAR
Also, where did you read that the Ulyanovsk class was meant to have its ski jump replaced by catapults? Common depictions of Ulyanovsk tend to show both a ski jump on the bow, as well as two catapults on the waist as per designed... I am not aware of the idea that the ski jump was meant to be replaced by catapults as part of the ship's design.
