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The Chinese YKJ-1000 is reported to cost $99000 per unit, is hypersonic and has a range of ~1300 KM. It's looking like the US needs some disruption on their ar

by juancn 6mo ago

The Chinese YKJ-1000 is reported to cost $99000 per unit, is hypersonic and has a range of ~1300 KM. It's looking like the US needs some disruption on their armament suppliers, kinda what SpaceX did for space launches. Compare that to the 1.5M each of the JASSM cost.

hagbard_c 6mo ago
Thus far Chinese weaponry has not shown to be as effective as promised. Maybe this YKJ-1000 is the exception, maybe it is not. Maybe exported versions of the weaponry have been crippled in some way, maybe not. The future will tell. The future, also, which I expect to bring down the price of western weaponry, probably not as low as the Chinese equivalents but closer to those than to those demanded by the old defence dinosaurs.
- stanfordkid 6mo ago
  What's your source for this? There isn't really a lot of credible, publicly available information on what you're saying... just anecdotes. In the India v. Pakistan conflict recently a French produced Indian Rafale was downed via a Chinese long range air-to-air missle (PL-15) from a a Chinese produced J-10 jet. Even if they don't have the same hit rate, you can buy 10x for the same price. Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/how-pakistan-shot-down-indias-cutting-edge-fighter-using-chinese-gear-2025-08-02/ https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/how-pakis...
- juancn 6mo ago
  Even if that's the case, it may be possible to make it up in sheer numbers. That's a 15 to 1 ratio. You can throw 15 missiles for the same price than 1. Even if they're 10% effective compared to the expensive ones, you may still have the advantage.
  - hagbard_c 6mo ago
    You need to be able to launch those missiles which requires some platform to do so. If this happens to be a ground-based platform is will be detected directly upon launch of the first missile and targeted for destruction. It better be an agile mobile platform like e.g. the Archer artillery system or it will probably not launch more than a single missile. If the platform is airborne it will have a limited carrying capability which partly negates the mentioned 15 to 1 ratio.
pseudohadamard 6mo ago
And a Shahed with the same range costs $30k or so.

by juancn 6mo ago

hagbard_c 6mo ago

Thus far Chinese weaponry has not shown to be as effective as promised. Maybe this YKJ-1000 is the exception, maybe it is not. Maybe exported versions of the weaponry have been crippled in some way, maybe not. The future will tell. The future, also, which I expect to bring down the price of western weaponry, probably not as low as the Chinese equivalents but closer to those than to those demanded by the old defence dinosaurs.

stanfordkid 6mo ago
What's your source for this? There isn't really a lot of credible, publicly available information on what you're saying... just anecdotes. In the India v. Pakistan conflict recently a French produced Indian Rafale was downed via a Chinese long range air-to-air missle (PL-15) from a a Chinese produced J-10 jet. Even if they don't have the same hit rate, you can buy 10x for the same price. Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/how-pakistan-shot-down-indias-cutting-edge-fighter-using-chinese-gear-2025-08-02/ https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/how-pakis...
juancn 6mo ago
Even if that's the case, it may be possible to make it up in sheer numbers. That's a 15 to 1 ratio. You can throw 15 missiles for the same price than 1. Even if they're 10% effective compared to the expensive ones, you may still have the advantage.
- hagbard_c 6mo ago
  You need to be able to launch those missiles which requires some platform to do so. If this happens to be a ground-based platform is will be detected directly upon launch of the first missile and targeted for destruction. It better be an agile mobile platform like e.g. the Archer artillery system or it will probably not launch more than a single missile. If the platform is airborne it will have a limited carrying capability which partly negates the mentioned 15 to 1 ratio.

pseudohadamard 6mo ago

And a Shahed with the same range costs $30k or so.