【2009经济学人杂志双语阅读】Spies in the sky 空中间谍

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经济学人杂志双语阅读：Spies in the sky 空中间谍

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Spies in the sky
空中间谍

Jun 4th 2009
From The Economist print edition

Military technology: Blimps equipped with remote-sensing electronics are cheaper than drone aircraft, and have many other advantages

军事技术：安装远程感应电子设备的气球飞艇比无人驾驶飞机便宜，而且优点多多

SPYING is a sophisticated and expensive business—and gathering military intelligence using unmanned aircraft can be prohibitively so. Predator and Global Hawk, two types of American drone frequently flown in Afghanistan and Iraq, cost around $5,000 and $26,500 an hour respectively to operate. The aircraft themselves cost between $4.5m and $35m each, and the remote-sensing equipment they carry can more than double the price. Which is why less elegant but far cheaper balloons are now being used instead.

间谍活动是一种尖端的昂贵行业，而用无人驾驶飞机收集军事情报其代价之高更是令人望而却步。两种频频出现在阿富汗和伊拉克的美国无人机，“捕食者”和“全 球鹰”，每小时的运作成本分别为5000美元和26500美元。两者的制造成本都在450万美元到3500万美元之间，而且它们所携带的远程感应设备是其 成本的两倍多。这就是目前用不怎么雅观但是便宜许多的气球飞艇来代替它们的原因。

Such blimps can keep surveillance and ordnance-guiding equipment aloft for a few hundred dollars an hour. They cost hundreds of thousands, not millions, of dollars. And they can stay in the air for more than a week, whereas most drones fly for no more than 30 hours at a time. They are also easy to deploy, because no airfield is needed. A blimp can be stored in the back of a jeep, driven to a suitable location, launched in a couple of hours and winched down again even faster.

这种气球飞艇能以几百美元一小时的成本把监控设备及定向武器设备悬浮在高空。它们的成本也只要几十万，而不是几百万。气球飞艇能在空中停留一个多星期，而 多数无人机一次最多只能飞行30小时。此外，它们无需飞机场，容易部署。一只气球飞艇能收在吉普车的后箱中，等行驶到合适的地点后，安装升空只需几小时， 收下来则更快捷。

Unlike other aircraft, blimps do not need to form a precise aerodynamic shape. This means they can lift improbable objects into the sky, such as dangling radar equipment. At altitudes of just a few hundred metres, a blimp carrying 20kg of remote-sensing electronics (including radar and thermal-imaging cameras) can identify, track and provide images of combatants dozens of kilometres away, by day or night. It can also help commanders aim the lasers that guide their missiles.

与其他飞行器不同，气球飞艇不需要形成精确的空气动力学形状。这意味着它们能将那些意想不到的物品带到空中，例如悬挂雷达设备。在只有几百米的高度，携带 20公斤远程感应电子设备（包括雷达和热成像摄影机）的气球飞艇能不分昼夜地分辨、追踪并提供几十公里外战斗机的图像。它还能帮助指挥官将导弹定向激光对 准目标

Blimps often operate beyond the range of machine-guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Even if they are hit, though, they do not explode because the helium gas that keeps them airborne is not flammable. (Engineers abandoned the use of hydrogen in 1937 after the Hindenburg, a German airship, was consumed by flames in less than a minute.) Moreover, they usually stay aloft even when punctured: the pressure of the helium inside a blimp is about the same as that of the air outside, so the gas does not rush out. Indeed, towards the end of 2004, when a blimp broke its tether north of Baghdad and started to drift towards Iran, the American air force had trouble shooting it down.

气球飞艇通常在机枪、火箭弹作用的范围之上。即使它们被击中，也不会爆炸，因为使它们升空的氦气使它们在不可燃。（1937年德国飞船兴登堡在一分钟内燃 烧殆尽后，工程师放弃了使用氢气。）此外，就算被刺穿了，它们通常也能留在高空：气球飞艇内部氦气的压力和外部气压相近，因而气体不会溢出。事实上， 2004年末，巴格达北部一气球飞艇的绳子断了，开始向伊朗飘移，美国空军为把它击落大费周折。

At least 20 countries use blimps—both global military powers, such as America, Britain and France, and smaller regional ones, including Ireland, Pakistan, Poland and the United Arab Emirates. Many are employed in Iraq. In November 2008 Aerostar International of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, began filling a $1.8m order for 36 blimps to be deployed by the American armed forces in Iraq. But Afghanistan may prove a bigger market. That is because it is difficult to pick up satellite signals in the valleys of that mountainous country. As a result blimps, adjusted to hover at appropriate heights, are often used to relay data to and from satellites.

至少有20个国家使用气球飞艇——无论是美、英、法这样的全球军事强国，还是爱尔兰、巴基斯坦、波兰、阿拉伯联合酋长国这样稍小的地区性势力。许多气球飞 艇都部署在伊拉克。2008年11月，南达科塔的苏福尔斯宇宙之星国际公司开始为价值180万美元的订单供应36架气球飞艇，美军将它们部署在伊拉克。但 事实说明，阿富汗是个更大的市场，因为这个多山国家的山谷地区无法接收到卫星信号。其结果是，经过调整后、能悬浮在适合高度的气球飞艇，通常被用来中转从 卫星接收到和发往卫星的数据。

As politicians around the world seek to cut public spending, the attractions of blimps are growing. In January America’s defence secretary, Robert Gates, told the Senate’s armed-services committee that the Department of Defence would pursue greater quantities of “75% solutions” that could be realised in weeks or months instead of “99% exquisite systems” that take more than a decade to develop. Barry Watts, an analyst at the Centre for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think-tank in Washington, DC, says America’s air force has been criticised for not providing enough aerial data to “insatiable” ground forces. Blimps, Mr Watts reckons, will help them sate that appetite.

全球的政客都寻求削减公共支出，气球飞艇的吸引力与日俱增。今年1月，美国国防部长罗伯特•盖茨告诉参议院军事委员会，国防部将以几周或几个月内就能实现 的、数量较多的“75%的解决方案”气球飞艇代替用十多年才能开发完的“99%的尖端系统”。华盛顿的智囊团，“策略与预算评估中心”的分析家Barry Watts说美国空军因没有向“不知餍足”的地面部队提供足够的空中情报受到指责。他认为气球飞艇将使空军能充分满足陆军的胃口。