I ask that cost of weapon.

[nebelwerferXXX]

Japanese weapons

type 38 rifle: 71 yen (= 270,000 yen today)
type 97 tank: 140,000 yen (= 486,000,000 yen today)
Mitsubishi Zero sen: 55,000 yen to 120,000 yen (= 190,000,000 yen today)

Does the Japanese still manufacture these weapons ?

[Carl Schwamberger]

None have been built in Japan since 1945. There is a small chance a arsenal in Manchria or China allowed continued production of the infantry rifle past 1945, but it was nearly obsolete by post war standards.

[phylo_roadking]

IIRC production of the M38 stopped in 1940; the Type 99 rifle, its replacement, was in production from 1939...the last Type 97 Chi-Ha tank in 1942...while the A6M was outclassed and outdated by 1944...

[vszulc]

Aren't comparisons and price lists like these at the end of the day pretty meaningless?

Firstly, and this is kinda hard to understand these days, but currencies back then didn't have an free exchange market as we know it today. As a result, some currencies were vastly overpriced compared to others, since exchange rates were fixed.

Secondly, both trade and wages were in many cases controlled and set by the state. For example, wages in Germany were set by the state, so they can't easily be compared with the free wages in the US. (Converted to dollars, a German wage, for example, might be higher than an American wage, but the purchasing power was vastly different, among other things because of rationing.)

It also important to remember, that there wasn't a free market for many goods and resources at the time. (Not just because of rationing, but also pre-war). Since an aircraft manufacturer in Germany, for example, paid a vastly different price for both raw materials and labor than a manufacturer in the UK or USA (for example rubber or wolfram, but also less sparse materials) such a comparison is not just pretty much impossible to make in a realistic way, it's also very misleading.

[pugsville]

After 1940 the British didnt even have the chancellor of the exchequer in the cabinet. Money was often not the limiting factor in production. It's the allocation of manpower and resources. The cost equation also has swap over affects in production and deployment. A new weapon type means heavier logistics , training and support costs, the cost of retooling and changing production. In many areas a bad/poor weapon was better than no weapon, production/purchase was about time rather than cost.

[phylo_roadking]

After 1940 the British didnt even have the chancellor of the exchequer in the cabinet.

Of course they did; you're forgetting the division between the Cabinet and the much smaller, inner "War Cabinet"

[nota]

COST OF 1 30 CAL BULLET ?
BY COUNTRY

[tramonte]

The value of $US 1 of 1938 was about $1.23 in 1945, $8.75 in 1990 and $16.30 in 2015.

Value of $1 by Year, starting in 1938
1939 $0.97
1940 $0.97
1941 $0.97
1942 $1.07
1943 $1.17
1944 $1.20
1945 $1.23
1946 $1.26
1947 $1.49
1948 $1.62
1949 $1.67
1950 $1.63

1 Yen = 0.2344 US dollar (in mid 1941) or 1 U$ = ~ 4,27 Yen

Japan and USSR: production of certain raw materials, 1942-44

________1942_______1943__________1944

Steel ingots (millions of metric tons)
Japan: ___8.0________8.8___________6.5
USSR:____8.1________8.5__________10.9

Coal (millions of metric tons)
Japan: ___118________117__________107
USSR:_____75________ 93__________121

Iron ore (millions of metric tons)
Japan: ___7.7________7.5__________ 6.1
USSR:____9.7________9.3__________11.7

Aluminium ingots (thousands of metric tons)
Japan: ___105________144__________110
USSR:___ 52_________ 62__________ 82

Sources: USSBS, Pacific Report 53, p. 112 for Japanese steel ingot production. For Soviet production, see Ellis, The World War II Databook (London, 1993) pp. 274-6

Suggesting how vital Aluminium was for WW2 Air-Sea warfare those figures are pretty impressive for Japanese production, especially between late 1942 and spring 1944. During that period there are several other figures suggesting that Japanese war production was indeed near that of Soviet Union. Besides Japan did it almost totally without any aid from other powerful ally. The figures so often forget are those of merchant ships of Japan built in 1942-1945: 3 392 814 tons including 986 159 tons fuel tankers.

The value of Japanese war production 1941-44 (millions of Yen):

-merchant ships: 4 023
- navy ships: 5701
- navy ordnance (all): 9 701
- army ordnance (all) : 5 911
- motor vechicles: 1 697
- aircraft : 11 635
------------------------------
total 38 668 million yen and with exchange rate .....9 063.7 million $.

(the ordnance figures given for the army and navy including ammunition made for each of the air forces as well. Source USSBS Pacific Report 53 pp. 203-4)

[tramonte]

Mid 1943 German armaments production.
http://www.sturmvogel.orbat.com/tankrep.html
Tanks. 6.4% of total armaments production.
Motor Vehicles. 4.8% of total armaments production.
Towing Tractors. 1.8%
41.9% Aircraft.
9.7% Warships.
24.6% Ammunition.
8% Weapons (I assume small arms and artillery for the army).
2.8% Powder.

How about cost of V-2? It was the most expensive weapon system the Nazis ever undertook. The USSBS estimate was that the effort that went into project in 1944 and 1945 alone was equal to the cost of production of 24 000 aircraft. Another estimate is that the development and production of V-2 cost Nazi Germany RM 2 billion. Actually the latter estimate might be too low, as production costs alone would have reached that level. In per unit costs, according to Speer, the first V-2s cost RM 1 million per unit. Later, when production became more efficient, the per cost dropped to somewhere between RM 250 000 and RM 300 000. The actual number of V-2s built was between 6 000 and 7 000. However the director of the main assembly planet claimed that more than 7 000 was built. At the end of the war, documents from Speer ministry claimed that in 1944 4145 were completed with another 2 165 finished in 1945. If the higher estimates for number (over 7 000) and cost (300 000, Mittelwerke at Niedersachswerfen) are right, the overall cost could easily have reached 3 billion RM.

It's obvious that V-2 was for Germany more expensive than Manhattan project for USA. Cost of development (including endless testing) of V-2 in 1943 might have been pretty high indeed too.