It can be said that before the debut of the 076 hull segmented assembly, everyone had various conjectures about the appearance of the 076. According to the relevant information, some elements of the layout of the island with electromagnetic catapults and two ships were basically determined. But with the debut of the 076 segment, the direction of attention has gradually focused on the sloping deck. Because once there is a sloping deck, then the 076 has some of the characteristics of a standard aircraft carrier, which is too important. According to some recent 076 construction, this sloping deck may have been canceled, and the final completion of 076 may be closer to an enlarged version of 075.
According to the network pictures, the domestic 076 amphibious assault ship is still under construction at the Hudong Shipyard on Changxing Island. Of course, everyone is most concerned about 076. At present, the biggest changes in the ship are in the bow and port parts, which are described separately below.
It can be seen that the bow is about to be closed, which is definitely an important construction node for 076, so will 076 still use the thick "square head" of 075? Many military fans may still prefer to see the bow of Japan's quasi-aircraft carrier.
Then there is the port side, and the outward deck structure is also being improved, but you can see that the rear and middle of the port side have a clear rectangular gap in the same position as the starboard side, which may be the space left for the elevator. If this part is indeed a lift, then it is an outboard lift, and it is also the first time that the 076 has used an American-level outboard lift after the 075's inboard lift.
Another problem arises, the 076 may not have the slanted deck design as previously speculated. Why? We can look at the Fujian ship with an inclined deck, the inclined deck is generally on the port side, and the ship island is on the starboard side, in order to ensure the integrity of the inclined deck, then the elevator cannot be set in the middle part of the deck. And the tonnage of 076 probably won't have 3 lifts, at most two. From this point of view, the 076 is more likely to have no sloping deck, probably just because the tonnage is larger and has a larger floating deck than the 075, and the overall should be more like an enlarged version of the 075, which may have a larger area than the American-level floating deck.
Of course, if 076 didn't design the sloping deck in the end, there wouldn't be any loss, because this direction was originally an idea. After all, if 076 is still based on amphibious operations as the main direction, then the special design of aviation operations on these aircraft carriers on the inclined deck is indeed not the most needed. Because if you add the inclined deck, then there are at least 3 runways, and it is also a question whether 076 needs to use so many runways, after all, there are only 3 Fujian ships with more than 80,000 tons.
At the same time as the debut of the 076 elevator, Hudong's super-large dry dock in the new factory on Changxing Island is also very lively, and now 6 ships have been stuffed, which can only be said to be big. There are at least 5 frigates in the same frame, right around 076. The lower right of these should be two new batches of 054A, while the one on the left looks to be shorter than the 054A, perhaps a smaller frigate, and there are 2 ships in the stern behind. And in terms of manufacturing schedule, these hulls have been assembled in sections, and the construction of the superstructure has already begun. There is a high probability that these five ships will be launched at the same time this year, and Hudong will be very lively at that time.
In general, now Hudong's manufacturing tasks are full, and a 076 plus a bunch of frigates is almost very saturated this year. With the construction progress of 076, its general design concept and deck situation will gradually become clear, and the positioning of the ship will gradually become clear. In the end, 076 is just an enlarged version of 075, or an amphibious aircraft carrier with a completely different positioning, it may not be until the end of the year that there will be a clearer answer. Western military fans want to guess, but the Western navy can't afford to make "dumplings".