dock, where work is now obviously underway to install engines and other heavy equipment.
hmm...right after OBozo was crowned. 
they'll strike while the opportunity exist...
Ping
I have read they are doing double time on the Vayrig(sp), Mine sweepers, etc..........
And shortly thereafter being towed back to port.
Obama fiddles Marxism while China rises.
The shakedown cruise should be interesting.
Its a FrankenCarrier
hmm...right after OBozo was crowned.
they'll strike while the opportunity exist...
Not saying the Chinese can't get there but they've got a long way to go.
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I’d love to watch their first aircraft launch and recovery.
good for target practice
it had better not get anywhere the USN in a shooting war
Every time one of these threads shows up, the usual snarking comments show up as well...
Its a FrankenCarrier...Shi Lang = Target...Shi Lang = POS...It doesnt even have steam catapults for crying out loud!...Bronze Star waiting to happen..." Yada, yada, etc., etc...
Personally, I think the Shi Lang and her follow-on sisters is going to be damn effective. Much more effective at what they are being designed for than anyone on FR (with the possible exception of Jeffhead himself) is willing to believe. Much more effective and combat capable than the Admiral Kutnezsov -- and I think the Shi Lang herself, is going to be operational much faster than people believe possible.
Are the ChiComs going to make some mistakes learning the lessons? Sure! They have probably made more than a few already -- which is probably at least part of the reason it's taking them so long to get this lady out to sea.
But they will get that lady out to sea, and they will master carrier flight operations (again, probably a lot faster than anyone here is willing to bet), and they will build more.
As far as her size and lack of steam catapults are concerned, I just shake my head and sigh. People look at her and look at our big brawny Nimitz class carriers and smirk. That, in my opinion is foolish.
She was never designed or intended to go airwing to airwing against American supercarriers. Chinese anti-carrier doctrine revolves around cruise missiles (both sub and surface launched) and their new anti-carrier ICBMs. The Shi Lang is the perfect size for her mission, which will be power projection in the Southeast Asian, Indian Ocean and African areas, in support of Chinese geopolitical objectives involving developing nations.
To give just one example, how does anyone think Indonesia or Malaysia is going to react, if after one of their orgies of bashing their ethnic Chinese populations, the Shi Lang carrying an airwing of 30 to 50 SU-33s and her battlegroup screen were to show up offshore?
Then there is the PLAN itself and the casual contempt in which too many FReepers seem to hold them. People really need to take a good look at Jeffhead's THE RISING SEA DRAGON page,
http://www.jeffhead.com/redseadragon/
and realize that China is building a modern blue water force that is very capable, professional and has the specific mission of driving the US out of the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans.
December 7, is just around the corner. On December 6, 59 years ago, a lot of people were scoffing into their beer about the "zipperheaded, fishhead-eating, Japanese" and gleefully predicting what the mighty USN would do to them if push ever came to shove. You may want to remember how that worked out.
So without any carrier operating, no experience, no technical know how, no fleet support or experience with a carrier, and no operational airwing this thing is suppose to be a threat?
Together with that wonderfully reliable Russian naval technology (sarc) they included in the equation, this will not be a threat to anyone who is a friend of the US,,, or one single Virginia Class SSN.
And on our dimes, yet!
