Of course it is steam catobar, and EMALS is one decade away to become mature, though these two are parallel research items.
What he said is that, the preparation work for 001A has already begun for years and a fairly large part of work for the first 001A is already in place.
But it is not so long ago that the maturity of domestic steam catobar was confirmed by PLAN and research institutes, thus made the 002 available on paper.
So the PLAN reported to the BOSS that the whole patch of two 001A should be replaced by jumping directly to 002.
Though this argument is much favored by both PLAN and the industry themselves, it was denied by the BOSS for uncertain reasons.
So the first 001A will continue its work with preset space for steam catobar on angled deck and the second one will be 002.
Both North and South made a chest thumping that they can reduce the produce cycle on ship berth to 28 months. :dafuq:
But who knows ...