PLAN Taskforce 529 open house - Massive photo link!!

MwRYum said:

1. Of course, only the PLA Navy knows themselves what they were doing...the thing about taking side between cold or hot launch has to do with the reliability of the ordinance - specifically, the booster engine - nobody wants a dud round left inside the system

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Yes, but you claimed that they had not figured it out. I was just pointing out that you don't know what they have figured out.

MwRYum said:

2. This has a good deal to do with it - material's heat resistance affects the structural service life of the system, or the provision if a failed launch led to premature detonation inside the system - cold launch is bulky and complicated but it practically blew the round out of the ship before its booster engine kicks in, so as long as it doesn't fell back onto the deck it's safe, but that translate into less tonnage for protection, fuel and armaments.

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You're confusing materials science with state-of-the-art materials science. No hot launch system requires any state of the art metals to be able to withstand the full burn cycle of a failed launch, aka a restrained firing. In fact they don't require state-of-the-art anything. Also, rounds do not detonate inside the VLS if they fail to launch. They will simply burn out their fuel and become duds.

MwRYum said:

3. Flexibility in this department would have to do with the operational requirement - hardware wise, in this case is about if the box can fit and the necessary flight software is available. However, with the aerial performs not carrying the main offensive punch, the lack of precision guidance leads to bigger warhead to compensate the inaccuracy, that dictates the size has to be big in order to cover the fuel, engine and payload size to fit the requirement.

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You were talking about planes, tankers, and ski jumps. Again I ask, what does this have to do with the design and construction of a VLS system? You might as well claim that since China can't yet design and build a nuclear sub equal to the Seawolf, that it therefore also cannot design and build a long range cruise missile. These two systems have about as much relation to each other as tankers have to VLS systems, and it makes about as much sense to compare them to each other.

Or perhaps at this time it's primary for air-defense system on a frigate, just 32 cells there's no room to sacrifice air-defense capabilities for just a few offensive punch, unless they get it onto a larger platform in the future, with room and tonnage for 2 sets and perhaps even larger module with more than 32 cells each, then they can put some of the cells into loading offensive ordinances like cruise missiles.

For the ordinance size...if you talking about C-705 or C-802A series then yes it'd fit in the box (I saw both of their full size mock-up in Zhuhai airshow in 2008), but C-602 series? If I remember correctly that thing is a tad too big to fit in, if the full-size mock-ups I saw at Zhuhai airshow and Beijing aerospace museum are to go by.