CV-18 Fujian/003 CATOBAR carrier thread
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
I don’t think it’s entirely appropriate to call the 9th and 10th trips “sea trials.” We know the ship was handed over to the PLAN after the 8th trial, so it’s impossible to determine whether these trips were still part of trials or were done for other purposes, such as training. At this point, the ship could already be operating as de facto commissioned.
In fact, we’ve recently seen what appeared to be a training touch-and-go.
Builder trials are usually followed by service trials. Handover generally speaking implies certain KPIs for service trials are met, ie the builder did what they were contracted to do.
That does not generally indicate the ship is "operational", ie engaging in duties other than testing, including training. Of course its possible PLAN goes about this in different ways, but certainly the established track record does not support this notion.
That does not generally indicate the ship is "operational", ie engaging in duties other than testing, including training. Of course its possible PLAN goes about this in different ways, but certainly the established track record does not support this notion.
Well, there is a difference between a ship being de facto commissioned (or even formally commissioned), and being operational... which is the case for most navies, and even varies between different ship types and even within ship types.
CV-18 obviously is not at IOC status, but from the sounds of it, it is essentially de facto commissioned with the PLAN and they're waiting for some sort of circumstance to just do the ceremony itself.
Some commemorative medals of sea trials, published by cssc articles, seem to further imply that the earliest ejection test should be traced back to last November.
A slice of video from recent stream of Shilao, Yankee and Ayi talking about why it was a risky but ultimately good call to skip steam catapult and go straight to emcat for Fujian.
But what's noteworthy is actually:
Someone forwarded this video to Ma Weiming himself and after watching it Ma Weiming seems to approve of what they said and asked for rest of the episode. Shilao got on the case immediately.
I recall in this video they said Ma Weiming is an ambitious person and can be difficult to work with. If you have an opinion that's different to him he's going to publicly let you know in meetings why you're wrong.
But what's noteworthy is actually:
Someone forwarded this video to Ma Weiming himself and after watching it Ma Weiming seems to approve of what they said and asked for rest of the episode. Shilao got on the case immediately.
I recall in this video they said Ma Weiming is an ambitious person and can be difficult to work with. If you have an opinion that's different to him he's going to publicly let you know in meetings why you're wrong.