2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：The last manned fighter

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》.杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　The last manned fighter

　　最后一代有人驾驶战斗机

　　It is the most expensive military project ever. It isplagued by delays and menaced by budget cuts. Willthe F-35 survive?

　　作为有史以来造价最高的军事项目，一再被推迟并饱受预算削减威胁的F-35战机会有一线生机吗?

　　Jul 14th 2011 | from the print edition

　　LEON PANETTA is under no illusions about what Barack Obama moved him from the CIA to thePentagon to do. The wily Mr Panetta, who took over from Robert Gates as defence secretary atthe beginning of the month, is everyone’s idea of a safe pair of hands. But his greatest claim tofame (other than presiding over the plan to kill Osama bin Laden) is as the director of theOffice of Management and Budget who paved the way to the balanced budget of 1998. MrPanetta has inherited from his predecessor the outlines of a plan to reduce military spendingby $400 billion by 2023. But America’s fiscal crisis (and the lack of any political consensusabout how tackle it) makes it almost certain that Mr Panetta will have to cut further and fasterthan Mr Gates would have wished.

　　对于奥巴马将自己从中情局调往五角大楼的意图，莱昂??帕内塔可谓心知肚明。月初刚刚接替罗伯特??盖茨成为国防部长的帕内塔为人老练，是个公认的值得信赖之人。帕内塔最露脸的一次(竟然不是主导刺杀本拉登的那次行动)是在担任管理和预算办公室主任期间领导有方，实现了1998年度财政收支平衡。帕内塔将继续实施其前任的计划，即到2023年削减4000亿美元的军费开支，但由于美国当前的财政危机(以及缺乏如何解决该危机的政治共识)，帕内塔几乎肯定会用比盖茨原计划更有过之而无不及的力度和速度来削减军费。

　　That could be bad news for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the most expensive military-industrialprogramme in history, and its lead contractor, Lockheed Martin. The plane is expected to comeinto service six years late (in 2016) and wildly over-budget. The Pentagon still plans to buy2,443 F-35s over the next 25 years, at a cost of $382 billion. But in a parting shot, Mr Gatesgave warning that although he did not think the F-35 faced cancellation, “the size of the buy”might have to be cut.

　　这对于F-35联合作战战斗机及其首席承包商Lockheed Martin来说可是个坏消息，F-35是历史上耗资最多的军工项目。F-35开始服役的时间预计比原计划推迟6年之久(到2016年)，且已经严重超出预算。五角大楼仍准备在未来25年内购买2443架F-35战机，总价达到3820亿美元。然而盖茨在离任时警告说，虽然他认为购买F-35一事虽不至于彻底没戏，但“采购规模”也许不得不缩小。

　　After beating a Boeing design that was deemedtechnically riskier, Lockheed Martin signed thecontract with the Department of Defence to developthe F-35 in 2001. It was an ambitious undertaking.The aim was to reap huge efficiency gains byreplacing nearly all of America’s ageing tacticalaircraft (the air force’s F-16s and A-10s; the navy’sA/F-18s and the marines’ AV8B jump jets) withthree variants of one basic design. There would be aconventional take-off and landing (CTOL) versionfor the air force, a short take-off and verticallanding (STOVL) version for the marines and a beefier carrier version for the navy.

　　在击败了技术上风险较大的波音公司的设计方案后，Lockheed Martin在2001年与美国国防部签署了研发F-35的合同。这是一项野心勃勃的计划，其目标是用基于相同设计原理的三种版本的F-35取代美国所有已经老化的战术飞机(包括空军的F-16和A-10战斗机;海军的A/F-18战斗机及海军陆战队的AV8B喷气式飞机)，从而大大提高作战效率。空军将配备以常规方式起降的战机版本(CTOL)，海军陆战队将装备短距离起飞和垂直降落版战机，而海军配备的是加大型运输机版本。

　　With radar-beating stealth capability and a suite of advanced software and sensors, the F-35would be a “fifth generation” fighter, far more effective in both its primary ground-attack roleand air defence than “legacy” aircraft. (Respectively eight times and four times better, sayLockheed Martin executives, though by what measure is anyone’s guess.)

　　F-35具有躲避雷达跟踪的功能，并配有一套先进的软件和感应装置，它将成为“第五代战斗机”，无论是主要的地面打击能力还是空中防御能力，F-35的效率都要远高于“leagcy”战机。(据Lockheed Martin公司的管理层说，F-35在这两方面的性能分别提升了八倍和四倍，尽管大家都不清楚这个结论是基于什么标准得出的)。

　　Burning banknotes

　　烧钱

　　Above all, the F-35 was meant to be affordable. Development costs would be shared acrossthe three versions and with eight foreign partners who were also buying and helping to buildthe F-35. Manufacturing scale economies were assured because more than 3,000 planes wereto be sold—2,443 to Uncle Sam and the rest to his NATO allies. And because 80% of the partswere common to all three versions, maintenance and logistics would be simpler and cheaper.Deliveries of operational aircraft were to begin in 2010.

　　最重要的是，F-35的价格并非难以承受。飞机的研发费用将由三个版本的战斗机共享，另外八个国家也会出资帮助制造和购买F-35。可以确信的是飞机将规模化生产，因为飞机的预购数量已超过3000架—美国2443架，其余的销往北约盟国。由于三个版本的机型使用的零部件有80%是可以通用的，所以维修和后勤工作会更加简单和便宜。作战飞机将于2010年开始交付使用。

　　That was the idea, anyway. The F-35’s critics have long argued that its performance iscompromised by having to fulfil too many roles and that an over-complicated design lashed toan over-optimistic schedule was asking for trouble. In the past 18 months, as delays havemounted and costs escalated, even some of the plane’s ardent fans have become alarmed. In2009 the Pentagon realised that a breach of the Nunn-McCurdy rules on over-budget defence-procurement programmes was inevitable, because costs would exceed the original baselineby more than 50%. An internal report declared: “Affordability is no longer embraced as a corepillar.”

　　说得再好，也仅仅是一些构思。F-35项目的反对者一直认为飞机会因为不得不身兼数职而导致性能大打折扣，而飞机过于复杂的设计却与过分乐观的项目进度捆绑在一起，这无疑于自讨苦吃。在过去18个月，研发进度屡次滞后，成本又不断上升，使得一些该项目的狂热粉丝也不免有所担心。2009年，五角大楼意识到违反Nunn-McCurdy条例(对超出预算的国防采购项目起限制作用)在所难免，因为项目成本将高出原标准50%多。一份内部报告指出：“成本优势已经不再被视为这个项目的核心要素。”

　　Anticipating the breach, in March 2010 Mr Gates restated his support for the F-35, but hit outat “unacceptable delays and cost overruns”. He said he was “fundamentally restructuring” theprogramme, adding more money and time for development. He also withheld $614m inperformance payments to Lockheed Martin, tying its future earnings to specific criteria ratherthan the subjective ones that he believed had stiffed the taxpayer.

　　眼看着预算被超出，盖茨虽然在2010年3月重申了他对F-35项目的支持，但却严厉抨击“项目进度延后，成本超支是不可接受的”。他说他要对项目进行彻底重组，向研发投入更多的资金，给予更宽裕的时限。同时，他拒绝向Lockheed Martin公司支付6.14亿美元的绩效款，今后将根据相应的具体标准向其付款，在盖茨看来，自吹自擂似的标准已经让纳税人花了不少冤枉钱。

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