Aircraft-carriers are juicy targets. They are also increasingly vulnerable ones. Like medieval castles in the age of the cannon, technological advance threatens to make them redundant. Satellites and over-the-horizon radars mean pinpointing their locations is easier. And a single well-aimed, well-armed missile may be enough to render a carrier useless, even if one shot does not sink it outright.
航空母舰是诱人的攻击目标。它们也越来越脆弱。就像大炮时代的中世纪城堡那样，技术进步让它们面临被淘汰的危险。有了卫星和超视距雷达后，要精准定位它们变得更容易了。而一枚瞄准精确、装备精良的导弹即使不能彻底击沉一艘航母，可能也足以让它报废。
American naval planners are particularly worried about China's DF-26. this weapon, which came into service in 2018, is a so-called manoeuvring ballistic missile (meaning it can vary its final approach path, rather than being subject solely to the laws of gravity) that has been dubbed a "carrier killer". The DF-26 can be launched from a lorry, and can carry either a conventional or a nuclear warhead.
中国的东风-26格外让美国的海军规划人员不安。这种武器于2018年开始服役，是一种被称为“航母杀手”的机动变轨弹道导弹（也就是说它可以改变最后的接近路线，而不仅仅遵循万有引力定律运动）。东风-26可从发射车上发射，可以搭载常规弹头或核弹头
This threat is fearsome enough to keep American carriers at least 1,600km from China's coast, reckons Bryan Clark, a naval strategist at the Hudson Institute, a think-tank. That is much farther than the range of a carrier's warplanes unless they can be refuelled in-flight. America's Department of Defence is therefore looking for a workaround. One back-to-the-future idea being tested (it dates, originally, from 1917) is to turn a suitable plane into an aerial aircraft-carrier capable of launching and recovering uncrewed drones in flight. This would allow seaborne carriers to be kept well out of harm's way.
如此强大的威慑力足以让美国航母退至距中国海岸线至少1600公里以外，智库哈德逊研究所（HudsonInstitute）的海军战略研究员布莱恩克拉克（BryanClark）认为。这远远超出了航母战机的作战半径，除非它们能在空中加油。因此美国国防部正在寻找对策。有一个“回到未来”式的想法（最早出现于1917年）正在试验中，即把一架合适的飞机改造成能在空中发射和回收无人机的空中航母。这将使海上的航母远离危险。
Castles in the sky 空中堡垒
To that end DARPA, the defence department's advanced research projects agency, is running a programme called Gremlins, a name that also applies to the individual drones themselves. A Gremlin drone weighs 680kg and has a wingspan of nearly 3.5 metres. once it has been dropped, deployed its wings and fired up its turbofan engine, it can fly to an area up to 500km away and in the words of Scott Wierzbanowski, the Gremlin programme's head, "go in and create havoc". That done, it would then return to its aerial mothership.
为此，美国国防部高级研究计划局（DARPA）正在开展一项名为“小精灵”（Gremlins）的项目，参与项目的无人机也叫这个名字。一架小精灵无人机重680公斤，翼展近3.5米。一旦它被投放到空中，展开机翼，启动涡扇发动机，就可以飞到远至500公里外的地方，用小精灵项目负责人斯科特维尔兹巴诺夫斯基（ScottWierzbanowski）的话来说，“前去大闹天宫”。完成任务后，它将返回在空中的母舰。
Gremlins would operate in fleets, under ultimate human control. In this, they are similar to the "loyal wingman" idea of drone squadrons accompanying a crewed fighter aircraft into battle. Loyal wingmen, however, would take off from and land on terra firma, or possibly a conventional, naval, aircraft-carrier. Operational Gremlins need never touch the ground.
小精灵们会在人类的终端控制下编队行动。在这一点上，它们和“忠诚僚机”的设计相似，也就是让无人机中队跟随有人战机参战。但忠诚僚机的起降会在陆地上，或者有可能是在常规的海上航母上。而在执行任务中的小精灵永远不需要接触地面。
