美国的七件“国防神器”

武器的乐园

    将全球部分最先进的海军武器汇总在一块儿，摆进一个大厅里，这个大厅里到处是各种战斗机的模型、最新型的无人机、一排排涂成灰色的精确制导炸弹、吓人的自动舰防炮，以及各种高性能的摄相头和传感器——非常多的传感器！这就是一年一度的美国海军军事技术盛会——美国海空天博览会的场景。它将最新的海军武器及支持系统与使用这些武器的人聚在一起，它既是行业博览会，也是武器展销会，同时也是国防行业的一次盛典。

    它也是全球军火业的一次顶尖展会。从美国海军，到波音公司（Boeing）、洛克希德马丁（Lockheed Martin） 、诺斯罗普格曼（Northrop Grumman）、德事隆（Textron）、亨廷顿英戈尔斯（Huntington Ingalls）等全球知名航空航海公司，都经常会趁这个盛会发布最新型武器装备。同时军火商和军方也通过这次盛会给我们提供了一个机会，看看明天的精尖武器会是什么样子。

    在这个经济紧缩时代的武器采购会是什么样子的？大家不妨想象一下，机器人、无人机和各种新型武器会怎样让上一代的武器变成更有效、更具性价比的现代国防工具的。

Wonderland of weapons

    Take a small legion of top navy brass from around the globe, pack them into a convention hall full of mocked-up fighter jets, the latest in unmanned aerial hardware, rows of matte gray precision guided projectiles, menacing robotic shipboard defense cannons, and myriad high-powered cameras and sensors -- so many sensors! -- and you can start to envision Sea-Air-Space, the Navy's annual defense technology confab. Designed to put the latest in naval armament and support systems in the same room with the very people who use them, Sea-Air-Space is part industry trade show, part arms bazaar, and part defense industry social event.

    It's also something of a bellwether for the global defense industry. Sea-Air-Space is often the venue for big reveals from both the Navy and the biggest names in aerospace and maritime technology--names like Boeing (BA, Fortune 500), Lockheed Martin (LMT, Fortune 500),Northrop Grumman (NOC, Fortune 500), Textron (TXT, Fortune 500), and Huntington Ingalls (HII). But it's also a place where contractors and militaries offer glimpses into their ongoing programs of record and let us see -- or at least extrapolate -- what the fighting forces of tomorrow will look like.

    What does arms procurement in the age of austerity look like? Think robots, drones, and retrofits that make the dumb weapons of previous generations into more efficient, more cost effective tools of modern defense.