Gremlins' principal jobs would be intercepting communications, jamming signals and hunting for things to be destroyed, thus softening up the defences in contested airspace to make it safer for crewed aircraft. Such drones could also be armed with small missiles or explosives for a kamikaze attack. And they would both share data and co-operate among themselves, and pass reconnaissance and targeting information back to warships and aircraft able to fire bigger missiles than they could carry.
小精靈的主要任務將是攔截通信、干擾信號以及搜尋摧毀目標,從而削弱作戰空域中的防御力量,讓有人戰機的處境更安全。這種無人機還可以裝備小型導彈或者自殺式襲擊炸彈。它們彼此間會共享數據,相互協作,并將偵察和攻擊目標的信息傳回給那些能發射它們無力搭載的更大型導彈的軍艦和飛機。
Gremlin swarms would no doubt suffer losses. But drawing enemy fire would actually be an objective, says Andrew Krepinevich, the boss of a defence consultancy called Solarium, which advises the defence department on aspects of naval and aerial warfare. This way, Gremlins would flush out the position of any hostile missile battery that switched on its targeting radar, marking it for subsequent destruction.
毫無疑問,小精靈機群會遭受損傷。但是,為美國國防部提供海空作戰建議的國防咨詢公司Solarium的老板安德魯克雷皮內維奇(Andrew Krepinevich)表示,吸引敵方火力實際上本身就會是一個目的。一旦任何敵方導彈陣地打開瞄準雷達,小精靈就拿到了它的方位,把它標記下來以待后續摧毀。
In the calculus of combat, sacrificing a drone or two to knock out an enemy air-defence battery makes for a nice swap. Gremlins should therefore be thought of as "tradable" for systems of greater value, says Mr Wierzbanowski. The better to fool the foe, military planners also envisage airlaunched drones that mimic the radar and heat signatures of bigger fighter jets and bombers. This would be done by using shapes and materials that reflect rather than absorbing radar pings, and by leaving an engine's heat signature unmasked. The illusion could be enhanced by flying drones at speeds and in patterns indicative of larger aircraft.
在作戰的得失考量中,犧牲一兩架無人機就能摧毀敵方的防空陣地,這筆賬很劃算。所以應該把小精靈視為“可交易”更高價值的系統,維爾茲巴諾夫斯基表示。為了更好地迷惑敵人,軍事規劃人員還設想讓空基發射的無人機模仿大型戰斗機和轟炸機的雷達和熱信號。這就需要使用能反射而不是吸收雷達波的外形和材料,并不再遮蔽發動機的熱信號。如果無人機再模擬大型飛機的飛行速度和模式,以假亂真的程度還可能更高。
On top of all this, a defender's need to squander precious attention and pricey missiles on incoming cheap drones will give its adversary's more capable aircraft freer rein. Enthusiasts for air-launched drones therefore see value in numbers. Putting lots of blips on radar screens is a good way to fluster an enemy with "complexity and multiple dilemmas", says Tim Keeter, who manages the Gremlins programme at Dynetics, DARPA's principal contractor for the project.
最重要的是,防御一方需要把寶貴的注意力和昂貴的導彈耗費在來襲的廉價無人機上,這就給了對手更厲害的飛機更多機會施展拳腳。空基發射無人機的擁躉因此看到了它們在以量取勝上的價值。讓雷達顯示屏上出現大量光點是用“復雜性和多重困境”來擾亂敵人的好辦法,DARPA小精靈項目的主要承包商Dynetics的項目負責人蒂姆·基特(TimKeeter)表示。
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