美国国家公共电台 NPR Nations Rush Ahead With Hypersonic Weapons Amid Arms Race Fear

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

President Trump's national security adviser¹, John Bolton, is in Moscow for a second day today. He's there to discuss President Trump's pledge to withdraw from an arms control treaty that bans certain kinds of missiles. This is one sign that world powers might be returning to an arms race mentality². Now we have another sign - efforts by the United States, China and Russia to develop a new kind of missile, a weapon that can fly faster and farther than almost anything in existence. NPR's Geoff Brumfiel has the latest.

GEOFF BRUMFIEL, BYLINE³: These weapons are called hypersonic weapons. And they are fast - really fast. By definition, they travel at least five times the speed of sound, thousands of miles per hour. The Air Force is currently developing hypersonic weapons, including at a place called Wind Tunnel 9, just outside of Washington, D.C.

Good morning.

DAN MARREN: Good morning. Hi, Dan Marren.

BRUMFIEL: The morning I showed up, Dan Marren, who's in charge, said the tests they were running that day were classified. I wasn't going to get inside.

MARREN: No, not at this point.

BRUMFIEL: But I was allowed in the lobby of the wind tunnel building.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOOR OPENING)

BRUMFIEL: There, Marren showed me unclassified versions of the things they work on.

MARREN: So if you look on this table here, we have several of the shapes that we've tested in the wind tunnel.

BRUMFIEL: Among the models is a sleek⁴, silver wedge with a spine⁵ down its center.

MARREN: It's called a Waverider. And so it's a fancy way to say it rides on its own shock wave.

BRUMFIEL: Here's how the Waverider works. The wedge-shaped warhead would be put on top of a rocket and fired at enormous speeds to the very edge of space. Then it would detach from the rocket and glide⁶ to its target. Now, big countries like the U.S., China and Russia already have weapons that can do something like this. They're called intercontinental ballistic missiles, and they can hit anywhere on the planet in minutes. But those missiles just go in a straight line from launch to target.

MARREN: This vehicle would not only be able to come from space but be able to turn and bank and fly almost like a real airplane.

BRUMFIEL: And that's the real appeal of hypersonics, especially for China and Russia. They're afraid the U.S. can shoot down their ballistic missiles with missile defense⁷. A hypersonic weapon can swerve⁸ or take a roundabout route to the target while still going incredibly fast. It's essentially⁹ unstoppable.

(SOUNDBITE OF HYPERSONIC MISSILE)

BRUMFIEL: Back in August, China tested a hypersonic prototype that flew for more than five minutes and reached speeds above 4,000 miles per hour, according to state media. Russia, too, has been testing. At a missile defense roundtable last month, the Pentagon's head of research and development, Mike Griffin said he was worried the U.S. was losing its edge.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MIKE GRIFFIN: We did the groundbreaking research. They've chosen to weaponize it. We need to respond.

BRUMFIEL: And the Pentagon is stepping up its hypersonics research. Now, there are still some big technical challenges to building these weapons. Pushing through the air at five or six times the speed of sound generates a lot of friction¹⁰, and friction means heat. At hypersonic speeds, steel turns soft, like butter. In fact, the Air Force tried to build hypersonic airplanes in the 1960s, but they kept melting.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO)

UNIDENTIFIED NARRATOR: The thermal¹¹ protection failed, permitting torch-like hypersonic air to incinerate parts of the ventral tail.

BRUMFIEL: That's an archival Air Force video showing how one experimental aircraft, the X-15, almost burned up during its flight. But James Acton, with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, says advanced materials and supercomputers are helping¹² hypersonics.

JAMES ACTON: We are seeing Russia, the United States and China all conduct hypersonic tests. Many of those tests - certainly not all of them - are being successful.

BRUMFIEL: Acton also says that hypersonic weapons pose a real threat to the U.S. military. But, he says, the solution isn't necessarily to develop our own hypersonic weapons in response.

ACTON: I don't think we should develop hypersonics just because somebody else is doing it. That's an arms race. I think we should develop hypersonics if it solves specific military problems or fills specific military needs.

BRUMFIEL: For now, the U.S. is stepping up testing. And back at Wind Tunnel 9, they're ready to start.

MARREN: Game on.

BRUMFIEL: All right, game on.

As I said, I can't see anything. But Marren has come up with a solution - I can stand out back, behind the tunnel, and record the rush of air as it moves through the system at Mach 10 - 10 times the speed of sound.

(SOUNDBITE OF HYPERSONIC MISSILE)

BRUMFIEL: So is that what Mach 10 sounds like?

MARREN: That's what Mach 10 sounds like.

BRUMFIEL: It's kind of noisy.

MARREN: (Laughter) It can be, yes.

BRUMFIEL: And with the test complete, hypersonic weapons inch a little bit closer to reality.

Geoff Brumfiel, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MASERATI'S "THE LANGUAGE)

1 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

2 mentality   

n.心理，思想，脑力

参考例句：

• He has many years'experience of the criminal mentality.他研究犯罪心理有多年经验。
• Running a business requires a very different mentality from being a salaried employee.经营企业所要求具备的心态和上班族的心态截然不同。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。

5 spine   

n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊

参考例句：

• He broke his spine in a fall from a horse.他从马上跌下摔断了脊梁骨。
• His spine developed a slight curve.他的脊柱有点弯曲。

6 glide   

n./v.溜，滑行；(时间)消逝

参考例句：

• We stood in silence watching the snake glide effortlessly.我们噤若寒蝉地站着，眼看那条蛇逍遥自在地游来游去。
• So graceful was the ballerina that she just seemed to glide.那芭蕾舞女演员翩跹起舞，宛如滑翔。

7 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

8 swerve   

v.突然转向，背离；n．转向，弯曲，背离

参考例句：

• Nothing will swerve him from his aims.什么也不能使他改变目标。
• Her car swerved off the road into a 6ft high brick wall.她的车突然转向冲出了马路，撞向6英尺高的一面砖墙。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 friction   

n.摩擦，摩擦力

参考例句：

• When Joan returned to work,the friction between them increased.琼回来工作后，他们之间的摩擦加剧了。
• Friction acts on moving bodies and brings them to a stop.摩擦力作用于运动着的物体，并使其停止。

11 thermal   

adj.热的，由热造成的；保暖的

参考例句：

• They will build another thermal power station.他们要另外建一座热能发电站。
• Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。

12 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。