and that it was only a rumour/disinformation that they had been removed. How do you remove and the reinstall huge boilers and steam turbines anyways without noticeably cutting into the hull? It's more likely that everything had been installed already before the construction of the Varyag's flight deck, and some refurbishments done in Dalian later. But I do agree that no significant electronics were likely to have been fitted before Varyag was towed to China.

How reliable are the engines of Liaoning and other PLAN's steam-powered warships? They don't seem to be deployed to the Gulf of Aden very much.