Cost as a Factor in China's Research, Development, and Acquisition (RDA) Cycles and Decision-Making

Abstract

Considerable attention is paid each year to costing Chinese weapons systems and then aggregating individual system estimates into total Chinese defense costs. Aggregate figure costs are then compared against those of the United States as a guidepost for assessing the adequacy of U.S. defense spending and as a substitute in planning for the Chinese military threat. These standard treatments of cost might gloss the depth and breadth of risk associated with the U.S. defense spending profile. The future of the Department of Defense is toward the INDOPACOM theater, and China is our peer threat. There is very little academic research into how China conducts defense spending and, most importantly, how it intends to invest in future capabilities. This study will continue the 2018 NPS thesis Comparison of Naval Acquisition Efficiency between the United States and China; however, it will focus on Marine Corps–specific investments. The findings of this thesis will help inform how the influence of cost on Chinese weapon acquisition decision-making informs Force Design 2030 decision-making.