Analysis of relative costs of PLA platforms

This report from CSBA documents a tool for procurement forecasting based on a relative platform cost analysishttps://csbaonline.org/uploads/documents/CSBA8310_(Chinas_Choices_report)_FINAL_web.pdf

One example they give is that it costs roughly the same to procure and maintain 1 Type 052D destroyer as it does to procure and maintain 7 J-20 stealth fighters. Another example is that the purchase of 1 heavy combined arms brigade is worth about 9.5 new J-20s

I thought it would be an interesting read.

In the appendix, a baseline PLA force structure forecast is presented for 2031. They estimated that PLAN could have 5 active aircraft carriers and 16 Type 055 cruisers, together with 45 destroyers and 18 SSNs.

This was brought up over on another thread and I mentioned some of the flaws I saw in the report. They based their relative costs on the US military's own relative costs and made little to no adjustments for the different conditions that exist in the Chinese military.

PLA News, Pics, and Discussion

Staedler said:

This was brought up over on another thread and I mentioned some of the flaws I saw in the report. They based their relative costs on the US military's own relative costs and made little to no adjustments for the different conditions that exist in the Chinese military.

PLA News, Pics, and Discussion

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This was basically the same type of CIA/DIA analysis for estimating Soviet military spending, needless to say the estimate was completely overestimated for Soviet military prices and spending, Gorbachev's statements during Glasnost made it clear that they spent half than the figures released by these US agencies considered.

These types of reports are fun for mindless reading but I would not take anything they write with any bit of seriousness

Almost all of these "thinktank" writers are basically just grifters paid by defence companies to pump up military spending