打造iPhone 5C式战斗机

    过去，要从头研制一架全新的先进战机只有一种方式：依靠纳税人上缴的数亿（甚至数十亿）美元，军方会首先探讨这种战机的最新技术要求，请数家航空领域的承包商进行投标，搞个数轮设计评审，抛出一份研发合同，随后就只能祈祷样机试制和生产过程中的延迟不需要再在已经花掉的数亿美元基础上追加上千万美元。比如F-35联合攻击战机就是如此。

    但赛斯纳公司（Cessna）的母公司德士隆集团（Textron）却大胆下注，另辟了一种开发方式：首先是了解全球各国空军的即时需求，再用现成的零部件打造一架造价便宜得多的战机，最后低价把这种配置缩减的低成本飞机卖给囊中羞涩的军方。

    上周，由德士隆集团和AirLand Enterprises（这是一家主要由国防部退休高官组成的投资集团）共同为一架双引擎喷气式战机揭幕。这架战机经过特别设计，旨在降低精密度和技术复杂度。更重要的是，它要比现役任何现代战机的购置成本和飞行成本都更便宜。

    德士隆集团总裁兼首席执行官斯科特•唐纳利谈及这架名为“天蝎座”的全新战机的设计时说：“它能够在威胁度较低的战场及国土安全领域执行任务。它是世界上最实惠的战术喷气战机。”

    德士隆在上周于马里兰州国家湾区（National Harbor）举行的空军协会（Air Force Association）年度“航空航天大会”上正式发布这款飞机前发表声明中称：“天蝎座旨在适应美国国防部和美国伙伴国日益紧缩的预算限制，”不过它的用途可远不止于此。这架双人座轻型攻击机恰好填补了战机市场一个重要的空白区，即在全球性能最好的涡轮螺旋桨飞机和精密尖端的喷气战机之间的细分市场。多年来，全球军用战机生产商一直不太重视这个市场。

    尽管对潜入敌方领空或与先进的敌方战机近身格斗来说，像美国的F-22“猛禽”（Raptor）这样先进的超音速隐形战机和即将服役的联合攻击战机F-35不可或缺，但绝大多数空军——包括美国空军和空军国民警卫队（Air National Guard）——多数飞行时间执行的都是普通任务。例行空中巡逻、飞行训练、ISR任务（即收集情报、监视及侦察）及空中拦截（空中禁区及类似区域的防御）都比空中格斗要多得多。

    目前，美国及其他家底殷实的军事大国都是用自己的高端战机来完成这些日常任务。那些手头吃紧的军队则常常购买高端涡轮螺旋桨飞机来执行ISR及其他飞行任务，而许多国家都会避免拥有一支纯粹由昂贵的喷气战机组成的机队。

    但在各国财政普遍紧张的时期，上述情况都不是真正经济的方案。对需要负载大量装备才能执行现代监视和侦察的ISR任务来说，涡轮螺旋桨飞机并不是很适合，而美国空军现役的F-15和F-16战机（或其他国家与之同级的战机）则都是高度精密的空中防御平台——对于执行这些日常任务来说实在是杀鸡用牛刀。不管是执行战斗任务还是日常巡逻，F-16每飞行小时都需花费约25,000美元，而今后服役的F-35可能费用还要高得多。

    德士隆正是从这些地方发现了像“天蝎座”这类战机的价值所在，它比涡轮螺旋桨飞机功能更强大，同时又比顶级战机更便宜。这种飞机每飞行小时的花费约为3,000美元，只是F-16执行例行任务所需成本的一个零头。尽管德士隆-AirLand还未公布这架飞机的定价，但德士隆发言人大卫•西尔维斯特表示，它的单位成本将比传统战机要“便宜好几倍”。

    There used to be one way to build a brand new, state-of-the-art fighter jet from scratch. Backed by millions (if not billions) of taxpayer dollars, a military would debate the potential jets' cutting-edge technology requirements, entertain bids from various aerospace contractors, perform multiple design reviews, award a development contract, and then hope that delays in the prototyping and production phases didn't pile tens of millions more in costs atop the hundreds of millions (if not billions) already spent. See: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

    But Cessna parent company Textron (TXT) is betting big on a second way: Look at the immediate needs of air forces around the world, build a far less expensive jet aircraft from off-the-shelf components, and offer this pared-down, low-cost fighter to cash-strapped militaries on the cheap.

    Last week a joint venture between Textron and AirLand Enterprises (an investor group made up largely of retired defense officials) unveiled a dual-engine jet fighter designed specifically to be less sophisticated, less technologically complex, and -- most importantly -- less expensive to buy and fly than any modern jet fighter in service today. "Capable of performing lower-threat battlefield and homeland security missions," Textron chairman and chief executive Scott Donnelly says of the clean-sheet fighter design known as the Scorpion, it's "the world's most affordable tactical jet aircraft."

    "The Scorpion is designed to accommodate the increasingly stringent budget constraints of the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. partner nations," Textron said in a statement prior to the official unveiling of the aircraft last week at the Air Force Association's annual Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., but that's not all it accommodates. The two-seat light attack plane addresses a key gap in the combat jet marketplace, one situated between the world's best-performing turboprops and its sophisticated fighter jets and one that has gone underserved by the world's fighter-manufacturing military powers for decades.

    While sophisticated, supersonic stealth fighters like the American F-22 Raptor and the upcoming F-35 Joint Strike Fighter are crucial for penetrating enemy airspace or engaging in strikes against a technologically sophisticated foe, most air forces -- including the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard -- spend most of their flight hours performing more mundane tasks. Routine air patrols, training flights, ISR missions (that's intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance), and air intercept (defense of restricted airspace and the like) are far more common than combat sorties.

    Currently, the U.S. and other well-heeled military powers use their high-end fighter jets to fly these routine missions. Less affluent militaries often buy high-end turboprop aircraft to conduct ISR and other flights, and many eschew owning a fleet of expensive jet fighters altogether.

    But in tight fiscal times neither of these scenarios is a truly economical solution. Turboprops aren't well-suited to the heavy ISR payloads necessary to conduct modern surveillance and recon missions, and the F-15s and F-16s the Air Force uses (or their foreign counterparts) are highly sophisticated aerial defense platforms -- overkill for these kinds of routine tasks. F-16s cost roughly $25,000 per flight hour to operate whether in a combat role or in a routine airspace patrol, and the F-35s of the future fleet could cost significantly more.

    That's where Textron sees value in an aircraft like the Scorpion that's more capable than a turboprop and less costly than a top-of-the-line fighter jet model. With an estimated cost-per-flight-hour of roughly $3,000, the jet would consume a fraction of the operating cost of an F-16 for routine missions. And while Textron-AirLand hasn't released pricing information yet, the per-unit cost is expected to be "multiple times less per copy" than a traditional jet, says Textron spokesman David Sylvestre.