Still 13 planes on deck and makes one wonder if that's all they could bring on deck.
What's the logic in this statement? How long had we been getting photos of the CV-16 only with 3 J-15's? How long had we been getting photos of the CV-16 with only 8 J-15's? In fact, for the past couple years before the last batches of photos, the CV-16 had been seen with at most 8 J-15's. Should we assume the CV-16 could only hold 8 J-15's on deck?
The photos of the CV-16 with 13 J-15's have only been coming out for the past couple months. And most of them came from the same mission, or the mission that immediately followed. We all know the the PLA does things in a slow and steady manner. So it makes perfect sense that they set a goal of having 13 J-15's on deck for the next few missions and continue to train on it. Just like before when we kept getting photos of the CV-16 with only 8 J-15's for several years, I expect that we will be seeing the CV-16 with only 13 J-15's for a while.
Then they will gradually increase the number of planes. And We will see more J-15's on deck. That's how the PLA does things.
Plus, I believe that current focus of the CV-16 is not max # of the J-15's on deck, but night ops. So we might expect to see even less than 13 J-15's on deck. Instead, we will see night ops in the coming weeks and months. I hope you don't conclude that the CV-16 has somehow shrunk and forced the PLAN to station less and less J-15's on the deck...
