【3月15日】看軍聞學英語
■林國賓
原文：
The German Navy has tested the BlueWhale underwater drone as a candidate platform for what the sea service envisions as a future fleet of unmanned vessels for combating enemy submarines.
Officials staged the two-week experiment last month in the Baltic Sea, which has become something of a microscope of global tensions. NATO, Russian and Chinese vessels routinely criss-cross the shallow body of water, as vital communications cables and energy pipelines lie on the seabed.
The German sea service explicitly envisions an anti-submarine warfare role for the BlueWhale vehicle, made by Israel Aerospace Industries. Equipped with various cameras as well as active and passive sensors, the drone can spot submarines, surface vessels and sea mines - notably, without emitting signals of its own that would alert targets that they are being tracked, according to the Germany Navy.
"This is a capability currently only available via manned submarines, which makes it significant for maritime surveillance," officials wrote in a statement posted on the Navy’s website.
The BlueWhale drones fall into the category of large unmanned underwater vehicles, weighing in at 5.5 tons, with a length of almost 11 meters and a diameter of over 1 meter.
German naval-systems specialist Atlas Elektronik participated in the recent test, which service leaders consider a stepping stone towards their "Marine 2035+" strategy.
中譯：
德國海軍已測試「藍鯨」水下無人潛航器，作為未來用於對抗敵方潛艦的無人艦艇編隊候選平臺。
官員表示，這項為期2週的測試上月在波羅的海進行。該海域已成為全球緊張局勢的縮影，北約、俄羅斯與中共的艦艇經常在這片水域交錯航行，而下方海床則鋪設著關鍵的通訊電纜與能源管線。
德國海軍將以色列航太工業製造的「藍鯨」無人載具，明確定位為反潛作戰用途。根據德國海軍指出，該無人潛航器配備多種攝影鏡頭，以及主動與被動感測器，能夠偵測潛艦、水面艦艇與水雷，而且不會發射自身訊號，以避免讓目標察覺自己正被追蹤。
德國海軍在官網發布的聲明中表示：「這是一種目前僅能透過載人潛艦才能具備的能力，因此在海上監偵領域具有重大意義。」
「藍鯨」無人潛航器屬於大型無人水下載具類別，重約5.5噸，長度近11公尺，直徑超過1公尺。
德國海事系統專家阿特拉斯電子公司參與此次測試，海軍高層並將這次測試視為邁向「海軍2035+」戰略的重要一步。
-關鍵軍語-
※underwater drone：水下無人潛航器
※sea mines：水雷
※manned submarines：載人潛艦