Budget Planner
Set a budget, build a procurement list, see the honest math
Set a budget, add systems with quantities from the 760-system database, and see a transparent total against your budget plus a sortable cost-per-capability table. This is a sum of published numbers, not real acquisition or operational planning.
Illustrative only. Every total is summed directly from the public unit costs published on each system page, quantity multiplied by the per-unit figure. Only about 30% of systems in the database (roughly 225 of 760) publish a public unit cost, so totals always carry a coverage note. This tool does not model contracts, negotiated pricing, offsets, financing or any real acquisition or operational planning process. Always verify against primary sources.
How the total is computed
The Budget Planner reads the same public unit-cost data published on every WeaponSpecs system page and sums it across the systems and quantities in your list. There is no hidden weighting and no blended score, every dollar figure is a direct sum, quantity times the public per-unit price, of systems that publish a cost. The remaining budget is shown while you are under budget, an over-budget amount switches to a red state once your total exceeds the budget you set.
- 1
Set a budget
Type any amount, or pick a preset ($5B, $20B, $50B, $100B), to define what you have to spend.
- 2
Build a procurement list
Search the 760-system database, add systems and set a quantity for each one.
- 3
Watch total vs budget
The bar shows spend against budget, remaining while under, an over-budget red state past it.
- 4
Read cost per capability
A sortable table shows unit cost, a chosen capability, and cost per unit of that capability, for priced systems only.
- 5
Try the fill suggester
A transparent, deterministic rule fills the remaining budget with the cheapest cost-per-capability picks, and shows exactly how it decided.
Cost per capability, and the 30% coverage caveat
Public unit cost coverage
Only about 30% of systems in the database, roughly 225 of 760, publish a public unit cost. Unpriced systems can be added to a plan but are always excluded from the total, the efficiency table and the fill suggester.
Higher-is-better only
Cost per capability only uses fields where more is genuinely better, range, speed, payload, hardpoints, VLS cells, troop capacity and cargo payload. Fields where lower is better, like cost itself, are never used as the capability side of the ratio.
Add-but-flag
Unpriced systems are never hidden. They show a No public price badge, can still be added to a plan for reference, and are greyed to make clear they do not count toward the budget total.
Greedy, not optimal
The fill suggester is a transparent, deterministic greedy rule: cheapest cost-per-capability first, whole units, until the budget runs out. It is not a combinatorial optimizer and will not always find the mathematically best possible mix.
Frequently asked questions
What does the Budget Planner actually calculate? +
It sums the public unit cost of every priced system in your procurement list, multiplied by quantity, and compares that total to the budget you set. Remaining budget is shown while you are under budget, and an over-budget amount is shown in red once you exceed it. Nothing is averaged, weighted or blended, every figure is a direct sum of published numbers.
Why are some systems greyed out with a No public price badge? +
Only about 30% of systems in the database, roughly 225 of 760, publish a public unit cost. Systems without one can still be added to your list so you can see them alongside priced systems, but they are excluded from the budget total, the cost-per-capability table and the fill suggester, since there is no public number to compute with.
What does cost per capability mean? +
For a chosen capability field, such as range or weapons payload, cost per capability is a priced system's unit cost divided by its published value for that field. It only uses fields where a higher number is genuinely better, so the ratio means what it looks like: lower cost per capability is more of that capability for the money. It never mixes fields where lower is better, like cost itself.
How does the fill suggester decide what to add? +
It is a transparent, deterministic greedy rule, not an optimizer. It sorts priced, capability-bearing candidates by cheapest cost-per-capability first, then buys whole units of the cheapest system until the budget runs out or a per-system cap is hit, then moves to the next cheapest system. The rule text is shown on screen every time you use it, and an Undo fill button reverts your list to before the fill.
Is this a real acquisition or operational planning tool? +
No. The Budget Planner is an educational, illustrative tool built from public specifications. It does not model contracts, negotiated pricing, offsets, financing, logistics, readiness or any real acquisition or operational planning process. It exists to make public cost data easier to total and compare, nothing more.