【8月31日】看軍聞學英語

■泰戈爾

原文：

Lithuania, a NATO state bordering Russia and Belarus, bought 48 Merops interceptors from American manufacturer Perennial Autonomy, becoming the latest NATO country to buy into the $15,000 per-shot counter-drone system.

The pilot purchase, made without competitive bidding, follows earlier Merops deployments and training with Polish and Romanian forces along NATO’s eastern flank.

The system is an example of a new crop of drone countermeasures marketed under an ultra-low-cost mantra that promises to even out a longstanding imbalance in air defense: Intercepting aerial threats like drones is exponentially more expensive than launching them.

It’s a brave new world for arms vendors, especially in the West, nursed on lavish defense budgets over decades. A price point advantage is no longer measured in millions of dollars below the competition, but in mere thousands.

The American-made system saw its first official combat confirmation last month, when Army Secretary Dan Driscoll told Congress that Merops had been used to down Iranian Shaheds aimed at U.S. troops in the Middle East.

中譯：

立陶宛作為與俄羅斯及白俄羅斯接壤的北約成員國，從美國製造商「常年自主」採購了48架 Merops攔截機，成為最新一個投入這款單次射擊成本1.5萬美元反無人機系統的北約國家。

這項試點採購是在未經競爭性招標的情況下進行，此前Merops已在北約東翼的波蘭與羅馬尼亞軍隊中進行部署與演習。

該系統是新一代無人機反制措施的典型代表，其銷售核心在於「極低成本」，旨在平衡長期以來防空領域的失衡：攔截無人機等空中威脅的成本，往往比發射它們的成本高出數倍。

對於習慣了數十年奢華國防預算的軍工廠商（尤其是西方廠商）來說，這是一個勇敢的新世界—現在的價格優勢不再以領先對手幾百萬美元來衡量，而是僅僅幾千美元。

這款美製系統在上個月獲得了首次官方實戰確認。當時，陸軍部長德里科爾告訴國會，Merops 已被用於擊落中東地區針對美軍部隊的伊朗製 Shahed 無人機。

- 關鍵軍語 -

※manufacturer：製造商