(continuing: I find this kind of exercise really fun)
I've elided the details of electrical and mechanical efficiencies here, largely because I fear boring you and your readers at this point, but suffice to say it only makes the math look worse for the Jaegers.
You could also look at the economics of building the Jaeger -- the cost of the titanium for one Jaeger, in 2013 dollars at 2013 prices is USD433 trillion, or 28 times the GDP of the US, or 5 times the gross world product, if the wikipedia page on GWP can be believed. We can argue that the appearance of the kaiju dramatically changed the economics of the entire world, but even if you could mine that much titanium for free, you still have to come up with enough energy to smelt it. Titanium smelts at 1700C. Smelting a couple billion kilograms of the stuff, well, that'll burn a lot of oil. (I'll leave the calculation of how much oil as an exercise for the reader.)
Moving on, for the amount of energy it takes to move a Jaeger, you could sent hundreds of unmanned submarines, each carrying a nuclear payload, into the Breach as soon as a kaiju emerges. Or if you would rather use conventional weapons, pack the submarine drones with thousands of tons of chemical explosive. Pilot the drone into the kaiju's mouth and detonate. There, cities saved. You've destroyed the local ocean ecology, but the kaiju are already doing that, and it frees up resources for research into how to shut down the Breach.
Anyway, I sound crankier than I really am about this. I can fanwank a dozen explanations for why existing weaponry wouldn't work, and the Jaegers made for excellent cinema. Also without that macguffin we wouldn't have the Drift, which drove all the amazing character development and heart of the movie. I just would have appreciated a lampshade, is all.
I've elided the details of electrical and mechanical efficiencies here, largely because I fear boring you and your readers at this point, but suffice to say it only makes the math look worse for the Jaegers.
You could also look at the economics of building the Jaeger -- the cost of the titanium for one Jaeger, in 2013 dollars at 2013 prices is USD433 trillion, or 28 times the GDP of the US, or 5 times the gross world product, if the wikipedia page on GWP can be believed. We can argue that the appearance of the kaiju dramatically changed the economics of the entire world, but even if you could mine that much titanium for free, you still have to come up with enough energy to smelt it. Titanium smelts at 1700C. Smelting a couple billion kilograms of the stuff, well, that'll burn a lot of oil. (I'll leave the calculation of how much oil as an exercise for the reader.)
Moving on, for the amount of energy it takes to move a Jaeger, you could sent hundreds of unmanned submarines, each carrying a nuclear payload, into the Breach as soon as a kaiju emerges. Or if you would rather use conventional weapons, pack the submarine drones with thousands of tons of chemical explosive. Pilot the drone into the kaiju's mouth and detonate. There, cities saved. You've destroyed the local ocean ecology, but the kaiju are already doing that, and it frees up resources for research into how to shut down the Breach.
Anyway, I sound crankier than I really am about this. I can fanwank a dozen explanations for why existing weaponry wouldn't work, and the Jaegers made for excellent cinema. Also without that macguffin we wouldn't have the Drift, which drove all the amazing character development and heart of the movie. I just would have appreciated a lampshade, is all.