I don't have real numbers for anything, but I tend to do analysis like the above quite often when evaluating business models. It's usually within a factor of 2x to 10x of being correct, so please don't take it as anything more than that:
A typical round weighs around 40 kilos or 100lbs. For reference, from a quick web search, as commodities:
- 100lbs of TNT would be around $500
- 100lbs of stainless steel is around $250
I'm not sure what materials go in (I'd assume better explosives and worse steel), but I think $250-$500 is a good estimate for price of raw commodities (not including anything beyond that).
I would at least double that for having those shaped into an artillery shell, and add the cost of non-commodities (like a detonator), and you're easily at $1000. I would at least double that for the raw cost of distribution, sales, shipping, and logistics, and other overhead. We're probably at $2000.
At that point, toss in 30% profit margin for everyone along the way (30% to manufacturer, 30% to distributor, etc.). You're probably now around $3500.
I think that's a bare minimum baseline for what it would take to get a very, very dumb shell. This goes up if you want:
- Anything at all fancy or high-tech
- War profits
- NREs covered (building a factory, which might be idle 95% of the time and spin up for wartime)
It takes about 15 rounds of 155mm artillery per battlefield casualty. Each shot costs about $5k.
Robots like this might cost the same as a single artillery shot but have the ability to get multiple kills each.
Itβs a cold arithmetic, but I guarantee you someone at DARPA is thinking and planning the future of warfare in these terms.