There is a point to this because we need to establish wether or not desalination plants were installed at the beginning of the anti-piracy missions which will help is understand future PLAN operation and deployments and is a crucial point in my opinion
As far as my understanding goes the author has clearly stated that there was no equipment to purify water and equipment was later fitted, it does not say refitted it also does not say there existed equipment or it was inadequate it clealy just says it don't exist, for example the exact wording was "did not have" so tells me nothing was there before
Where does the author say that? I'll examine the relevant paragraphs one by one.
In February 2012 People’s Navy ran a special report on securing fresh drinking water for sailors in the Gulf of Aden.6 During the first deployment, in 2008, crewmen faced a major dilemma in that regard:
Most maritime areas near the Gulf of Aden are desert-like zones lacking water [resources], freshwater can even be sold for between fifty and sixty U.S. dollars per ton, over a hundred times the price of water in Chinese cities. If warships want to replenish freshwater on the coast, not only is the degree of difficulty great, [but, in addition, money] spent on foreign exchange is extremely high. However, the warships’ costs for purifying salt water were [also] extremely high.
So it quite explicitly states that the cost of purifying salt water was extremely high and that this was a problem the crew in the first 2008 voyage faced. If the 2008 taskforce didn't have purification, then it would be stated that they didn't have purification machines, rather than saying it costed a lot to purify water.
Okay, next case:
Relying solely on on-ship stores of freshwater cannot even come close to meeting these demands, and as such, medium- and large-scale ships have all installed high-production saltwater purifica- tion equipment
This comment is not made specifically at the PLAN but at all medium and large warships in general
People's Daily suggests that the main cause was that the vessels deployed to the Gulf of Aden had been designed for Near Sea operations and thus did not have the water purfication equipment needed for longer voyages. In September 2009, managers and technicians of Quighuang Dao Mountain Heavy Industries Machinery Company, Ltd. began researching the problem. By May 2010 the problem had been largely solved by installation of new purification equipment, and sailors on escort warships enjoyed a constant supply of freshwater.
For longer voyages. Not that they lacked water purification equipment.
So I would say this based on what people think There is two interpretations
One they had plants they were insufficient and so got better plants
Two they didn't have plants and got new ones installed
And I think it's pretty clear it is option one.
Look at it this way, if it was option two, why would the paragraph about the 2008 voyage simply not say "they lacked desalination plants" instead of "the costs were extremely high"? Further why would the report specifically go out of its way to mention that thew new plants in 2010 were "high production" and "meeting all of the sailors needs" -- if I was the author and wanted to carry the point that the ships lacked desalination plants I'd mention the lack of purification plants in plain black and white. Nowhere has Erickson done this.
He's gone out of his way to actually specifically detail the shortcomings of the
existing desalination plants before pointing out how new ones could subsequently overcome those shortcomings.
I believe or maybe not believe but I know by reading the article that I follow the second interpretation it's clear as crystal for me the wording is concise and accurate and PLAN ships didnt have desalination plants to begin with but now do
I think myself, Jeff, and others have already highlighted the parts in the wording which suggest otherwise. Not to sound overly contentious, but I think at the moment you're the only one interpreting the wording in your way :s
Also I would think that all new FFG and DDG have these plants not just the ones who go on anti-piracy missions!?
Well all I suspect all new PLAN ships since the 90s would have had desalination , while new build ships since 2010 should all have the new high production plants from the get go.
