052C/052D Class Destroyers
- Thread starter Jeff Head
- Start date
No.
Apologies for the ignorant question, but does 52D have any sort of distinct advantage over 55? It doesn't have to be a technical advantage, financial/industrial ones are noteworthy too. I.E., Total cost of ownership/production time/maintenance time per additional VLS cell in service, etc.
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Thanks for highlighting that. Those were my built-in assumptions on a per-ship basis, but I wondered if that cost difference still held true when looking at it from a per-VLS-cell basis. Totally understood that this is getting into a highly speculative realm and there is likely no public evidence one way or another. Would be interested in hearing any speculation though.
I'm not sure what you mean for a per cell basis, because the differences between different ship classes using the same VLS is much more than just the number of VLS they have.
Reducing it down to VLS cell count means you won't capture all of the other subsystems and items that are part of a ships cost not to mention you won't capture the operational and sustainment costs.
Understood. To me it's just a mental shortcut for trying to figure out how expensive it is for one platform to bring to bear an equivalent quantity of firepower. I.E., x number of 55s vs z number of other ships with the same theoretical output. A way of trying to figure out if the 55's extra cost is justified by extra capabilities that any number of 52Ds cannot match.
More broadly speaking, I am trying to understand why a more expensive 55 is preferable to a larger number of 52Ds or vice versa.
