Yes, the 071 is far better at doing the things the 072 is designed to do. Mainly because it's far larger, and also far more expensive, not only due to size but also due to the electronics and range of weapons and defenses available to it. This does not constitute any kind of definitive reason for why 072s should be retired when more 071s are built. You also fail to understand the roles of the 072 vs the Zubr. The 072 is larger than the Zubr and can carry far more men and vehicles than the Zubr; this is an important point that you either didn't know, didn't understand, or conveniently withheld from the discussion. The LST's role is to enable and support mass landings as part of a major invasion. The Zubr, and hovercraft in general, is designed to threaten beaches that conventional ships like the 072 are unable to beach on, opening a much larger range of options for the invader, such as a secondary, poorly-defended invasion site. Unfortunately for you, hovercraft-lifted forces both currently in the PLAN ORBAT AND in the fanboi-fantasyland PLAN with massed 071s, 075s, and Zubrs are regardless going to be woefully insufficient to achieve the core goal of the PLA (reunification of Taiwan) by themselves. They will need ALL the troop-carrying ships they can get their hands on, including 072s, which incidentally they will indeed decommission at some point. That point being when they complete their full term of service and their hulls are spent. Or when hell freezes over. Whichever comes first.
Oh, I didn't say "a single one" had to be me, little man. I mean ANY one person on SDF. So far it looks like people all over SDF have been dumping on all your queer 'ideas', including this one.
Are you kidding me with your Nations: Dawn of An Era crap? LOL do you not even bother to check what sources you pull off the internet? This is a GAME, with figures derived from the rectal orifices of the game designers with absolutely no primary sources to back them up. And just because a ship is more metal than another doesn't mean it costs more. Far more important are the electronics and weapons on the ship. The 072 has a navigational radar and some machine gun posts. The Zubr not only has complex fan-driven ducted systems powered by GTs, it has ECM/ESM systems, search radar, FCR, CIWS, rocket/decoy launchers, MANPADS, and mines. Saying the Zubr costs less than the 072 because it's smaller is about as dumb as saying that a 054A costs less than a giant post-Panamax 10,000 TEU container ship because it's far smaller. In actuality those 400m long giants on average cost less than $100 million while the estimates of the 054A put it somewhere in the neighborhood of $250 million.
Please tell me which ships the PLAN has actually decommissioned before its time. I've held that the 051s should have been cut from the fleet long ago due to their liability in a modern shooting war, but even these ships the PLAN will apparently not be cut early. And they are far less valuable to the PLAN than 072s. In fact ANY floating chunk of metal with engines and the capacity to carry troops is more valuable to the PLAN than a hopelessly obsolescent surface combatant that can no longer perform its duties adequately. And seeing as how the PLAN is still far short of having the lifting capacity to deal with a Taiwan scenario, the existence of the 072 and the production of 071 certainly will not be going "hand in hand". They won't go hand in hand even after all the 071s are done being produced.
