According to an article published by the War Zone Channel of the US "Power" website on July 6, China is acquiring new weapons 5 to 6 times faster than the United States, and its military purchasing power is nearly 20 times that of the United States. Currently, China is engaged in more and more cutting-edge weapons fields. A breakthrough was achieved, which is the key reason why China’s military power can quickly catch up with the United States.
Screenshot of a report on the "Power" website
Major General Holt, deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for Procurement, believes that in addition to China's ability to quickly obtain new weapons, the Chinese people's work efficiency is also far higher than that of Americans. In terms of purchasing power parity, China can achieve the purchasing power of US$20 with US$1. The US government has still not been able to figure out how to reduce the cost of weapons production and increase the speed of the supply chain. If this situation continues, the US will inevitably lose in its strategic competition with China. Come down.
Holt
Holt pointed out that the current budget framework for defense weapons procurement in the United States is very cumbersome, and the processes from budget preparation to completion are very slow. Those who control the budget can allocate funds according to how they think they should be. intervening in ways that could completely change the pace of budget execution. In many cases, new U.S. weapons progress very smoothly at the beginning, but subsequent funding planning will hinder the speed of new equipment entering military service. Even if the U.S. Congress has set aside sufficient development funds for new projects, the Pentagon still has the ability to mobilize funds, which will greatly hinder the development progress of new weapons projects. Holt believes that without drastic reforms, the U.S. defense procurement process simply cannot be completed at the expected speed, and the U.S. military-industrial complex has lost the ability to "move quickly."
B-21 bomber project can be regarded as a typical rapid development project of the US military.
The theater channel pointed out that a US Air Force expert named Chai Lan said that the United States will have no chance to compete with China in 15 to 20 years. U.S. officials are filled with frustration in the race for cutting-edge technology. At present, China is already in a leading position in some emerging technology fields, while most related projects in the United States are trapped in a cycle of budget overruns and slow progress.
In fact, both Holt and Chai Lan have seen through the essence of the U.S. military-industrial problems. First, the various supply chain costs of the U.S. military-industrial complex remain high, resulting in serious R&D and manufacturing cost overruns. Most new equipment procurement The budget needs to be readjusted, which has greatly hindered the development process of new equipment; second, there is a serious buck-passing phenomenon in the U.S. national system, and it cannot concentrate its efforts on big things like China. Congress and senior military officials are in conflict with the military industry. Enterprise has interests, and the pursuit of high profits is its primary goal.
Judging from the speed of new equipment installation, China is indeed much faster than the United States. Taking the navy as an example, since 2010, China has built and launched 29 052C/D destroyers, nearly 30 054A frigates, 72 056 frigates, 8 055 destroyers, 3 075 amphibious assault ships, and 3 aircraft carriers , during the same period, the U.S. Navy only built 16 "Arleigh Burke" destroyers, 2 "Ford" class aircraft carriers, 2 "America" class amphibious assault ships and 18 littoral combat ships . In terms of quantity and China has a huge advantage in terms of tonnage. Compared with China, the powerful shipbuilding capabilities of the U.S. military industry no longer exist, and the speed of shipbuilding will only become slower and slower than that of China.
055 Two destroyers were launched simultaneously
The USS Tripoli amphibious assault ship
From the perspective of air force equipment, China has built nearly 300 J-10B/C fighters and more than 200 J-16 fighters since 2010. There are more than 200 J-11B fighters and more than 150 J-20 fighters. In just over ten years, nearly 900 world-class advanced fighters have been built. During the same period, the United States only built 302 F-35A fighters and There is a very big gap in scale between the two F-15EX fighters.
J-20 fighter aircraft
F-35 fighter aircraft
Although the installation speed of advanced equipment of the Chinese and American naval and air forces is not as different as five or six times as stated by senior US military officials, the three times gap in reality is enough for China's military power to achieve took off, greatly reducing the advantage of the US military. Judging from the current speed, China and the United States may experience a reversal in the scale of major equipment by around 2035.
As for what Holt said about the 20-fold difference in purchasing power between China and the U.S. military, that is actually a bit exaggerated. The difference in purchasing power between China and the U.S. is indeed very large, but it is not a 20-fold difference. Our country has the most complete industrial chain in the world. Everything from bullets and firearms to aircraft carriers and fighter jets can be basically domestically produced. The degree of dependence on foreign countries is very small. Moreover, my country's labor costs, material costs, production and processing costs, etc. are still among the lowest in the world. level, resulting in relatively low terminal costs, which is the main reason for the low price of my country's military equipment. In addition, almost all of my country's military industry enterprises are state-owned enterprises. Under my country's current economic system, they do not always put profits first like American military industry enterprises. They are more responsible for the important task of national defense modernization. , focusing on social benefits. The above two points are fundamentally different from those in the United States, which is why there is such a big difference in labor costs between China and the United States.
The current purchase price of the US military's "Arleigh Burke" III destroyer has risen to 2 billion U.S. dollars. The purchase price of the new "Columbia" class strategic nuclear submarine is as high as 7 billion U.S. dollars. The cost of the new attack nuclear submarine has also reached The procurement cost is US$2.3 billion, which makes the US military with deep pockets unable to bear the procurement cost. This is also an important reason why the construction speed of the US's main warships is much slower than that of China. In comparison, the cost of my country's 055 destroyer is about 6 billion yuan, or about 1 billion U.S. dollars. The cost is only half of the US military's "Arleigh Burke" class destroyer . However, its performance has achieved a significant improvement; the 052D destroyer's The cost is about 4 billion yuan, or about 600 million US dollars. The cost is only one-quarter of the cost of the "Arleigh Burke" destroyer, but it has two-thirds of its combat power.
U.S. Arleigh Burke-class destroyer
052D destroyer
From the perspective of the cost of stealth fighters and main battle tanks, there is a 2 to 3 times gap in the construction cost of land and air equipment between China and the United States, which is basically the same as the gap in naval equipment. Therefore, from the perspective of equipment cost alone, there is a gap of about 3 times in purchasing power between China and the U.S., which is basically the same as the gap in the speed of new equipment installation. The main reason why Holt exaggerated the gap was to make top U.S. officials aware of the serious crisis in U.S. military spending and the military-industrial complex. If reforms are not carried out, it is only a matter of time before the United States is overtaken by China.
