Cost differential likely to do with AESA vs. mechanical radars. AESAs can be very expensive. Just to give you some context, the Zumwalt canceled its S-band and X-band dual band radar set up, removed the set of S-band radars and kept only the X-band radars, because of cost. Yet that's exactly what the 055 did absorb and made eight of them. The bigger they are the bigger the bill, as you can see with Flight III Burke's enormous price jump over Flight IIA. The reason why SPY-6 is paired with a SPQ-9B, which is an X-band PESA, could be due to budgetary reasons. Originally it was meant to pair this radar with an X-band AESA (SPY-5?). There was also rumors that the 054B would use mechanical radars for gunnery and antiship fire control, hence why some are fan speculated illustrated with such. The 055's X-band AESA happen to be for gunnery and antiship fire control. In terms of radar setup, the 055 went full Rolls Royce here.
A hypothetical 052E which has a dual band AESA set up would cost more than 052D with its single band AESA and supporting mechanical radars, making the cost somewhere between the 052D and the 055.
But PLAN is willing to spend for it because it is claimed, a 055 is 3X to 4X more combat effective or has greater combat potential over a 052D. I would attribute these combat multipliers due to not just the 055's radar set up, but it has a more advanced CEC, IFF, and the next generation electronic warfare kit. Having this too, will give the hypothetical 052E a combat multiplier advantage over the 052D, especially when the CEC of the 052E and the 055 is networked together.
For this reason too, a 054E heavy in AESA, with the more advanced CEC, IFF and EW kit, would have multiplier advantages over the 054A, and it would work better with ships using the more advanced CEC (right now 055, Shandong, Liaoning, 075, 003). The more members the network has, the better. But its also going to be much more expensive than the 054A, with the bill that could creep it closer to the 052D.
Already posted here, this presentation illustrates what the PLAN plans in going forward as their standards. It shows a dual S-X band radar setup, the L-band here for IFF, the 6 Ghz small rectangle for high speed digital communications which you would expect for CEC. From here on, it will become less and less of a cost issue but rather ships trying to meet the new standards and expectations for the sensors, EW and communications. A future ship does not need to take the exact form below, but it will have the same panels.
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