The Navy's X-47B unmanned combat jet captured headlines and imaginations earlier this summer when it took off and then landed on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. George H.W. Bush. The event marked the first time an unmanned, autonomous aircraft has pulled off such a feat. In doing so, the sleek, stealthy, robotic X-47B ginned up a great deal of hype and speculation surrounding the future of naval aviation and the role these aircraft -- still in their prototype phase -- might play in future conflicts.

    But meanwhile, the more immediate future of unmanned, autonomous maritime aviation -- and a critical piece of the U.S. military's "pivot" to the Asia-Pacific region -- is shaping up in Palmdale, Calif., where the Navy's MQ-4C Triton completed its fourth successful test flight last week. Autonomous aircraft plying the skies over the world's oceans are closer than many might think.

    The differences between the Navy's long-term plan to field semi-stealthy combat drones and its far more immediate initiative to field a persistent reconnaissance capability over the world's oceans are myriad, but the reason they're worth mentioning in the same sentence is that both platforms demonstrate the absolutely massive impact that autonomous flight will have on civilian and military aviation in the years ahead.

    And the most striking difference? The X-47B is a technology demonstrator that will never see active service. Triton, on the other hand, is an active Navy development program navigating a tough fiscal environment toward initial operating capacity in as few as four years. If the Triton platform works as advertised, it will provide the U.S. Navy with an unparalleled ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) advantage over the world's oceans, including the ability to observe 2 million square miles of ocean per day via a single aircraft, a capability dwarfing that of the best manned recon planes in the air today.

    "What we're going to have is the most capable aircraft in all weather conditions," Capt. James Hoke told reporters gathered at last week's Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International show in Washington D.C., one of the world's biggest trade shows for unmanned technologies. That kind of persistent, around-the-clock situational awareness on the high seas will be a game-changer for the Navy going forward, Hoke says. Once fully fielded in 2017, the idea is that the Navy's Tritons will always be in the sky, observing and tracking every military and civilian vessel within 2,000 nautical miles of each aircraft -- or across 2 million nautical square miles per each 24-hour flight.

    If the Triton aircraft looks familiar, it should. The MQ-4C is built on the back of Northrop Grumman's (NOC) RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft that is used by everyone from the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy to NASA for various surveillance and data collection tasks. (NASA uses them to track hurricanes over the Atlantic.) But the Triton is distinctly different from its predecessors, optimized for long-endurance flights in maritime environments via a strengthened airframe and a novel de-icing system that allows it to rapidly ascend and descend from high altitude. Critically, the MQ-4C will also operate autonomously, piloting itself along a route chosen by its mission handlers and notifying them when its sensor suite detects something interesting, cutting down on the number of personnel needed to operate the platform and the complexity of operations.

    今年夏初，美国海军的X-47B无人驾驶战斗机在乔治布什号航母上完成了起降试验，引起了无数人的关注和遐想。这也是全球第一款自动化的无人驾驶飞机首次完成在航母上起降的壮举。因此，这架美观的隐身无人机吸引了各大媒体的大肆宣传，同时它也引起了很多关于无人战机以及海军航空兵在未来战争中可能扮演的角色的推测——尽管这种无人驾驶战斗机目前仍然处在原型机阶段。

    与此同时，美国海军的另一款无人侦察机“MQ4C Triton”已于上周在加州的棕榈谷成功进行了第四次试飞。它是美军为了满足短期战略而设计的一款航空器，尤其是它将成为美军部署在亚太地区的一颗重要棋子。无人机在全球各大洋上巡航的日子可能会比很多人想象的来得要快。

    美国海军的长远战略是部署一款半隐身型的无人驾驶战斗机，相比之下，它眼下更迫切的任务是在全球各大洋部署一支持续不断的侦察力量，因为长期和短期战略之间毕竟是存在很大差距。但无论是从美军的长期战略还是短期规划中，都可以看出无人机技术必将对未来几年的军用和民用航空领域产生很大的影响。

    那么，这两款无人机最重要的差异在哪里呢？X-47B像是一个美国尖端技术的展示平台，这架无人机不需要任何的人工干预。而MQ4C Triton则是美国海军在捉襟见肘的财政条件下主动开发一个项目，旨在四年之内就能够初步投入部署。如果MQ4C Triton平台真的能达到它宣传的水平，那么它将使美国海军在全球各大洋占据无与伦比的情报、监视和侦察优势，仅凭一架MQ4C Triton每天就能监视两百万平方海里的海域。从这一点来看，即便是目前全球最顶尖的有人驾驶侦察机也要甘拜下风。

    海军上校詹姆斯•霍克对上周对云集在华盛顿国际无人机系统协会展（Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International show）上的记者表示：“我们即将拥有的是一架在各种气象条件下都具备最佳能力的飞机。”它所带来的全天候、持续性的环境观察能力将为美国海军带来颠覆性的优势。一旦这个机型在2017年得到充分部署，它将在全球各大洋进行不间断的侦察。每架MQ4C Triton都能追踪到方圆2000海里内的任何军用和民用船只，也就是说24小时内便可对200万平方海里内的一切动向了如指掌。

    如果大家觉得MQ4C Triton看起来有点眼熟，这也没什么好奇怪的。它是在诺斯罗普格鲁曼公司的RQ-4“全球鹰”无人机的基础上制造的。RQ-4“全球鹰”的用途非常广泛，从美国空军、美国海军到美国航天局（NASA）都在使用该机型进行多种监视和数据收集任务，比如NASA就用它们追踪大西洋上的飓风。但是MQ4C Triton与RQ-4“全球鹰”有很大的区别。首先它使用了强化机身，还搭载了一套新颖的除冰系统，使它可以从高空迅速地俯冲或爬升，因而优化了长时间巡航的能力。更重要的是，MQ4C Triton可以自动运作。它会通过预先设置好的路径巡航，而当它的传感器捕捉到一些令人感兴趣的信息时，就会自动通知地面操作人员，因而减少了操作该平台所需的人员，同时降低了操作的复杂性。

    Triton won't operate from carrier decks -- its wingspan is larger than that of a Boeing 737, far too large for a carrier to accommodate -- and it won't carry weaponry, though the existence of pre-installed hard points on its wings suggest that underwing payloads could be integrated in the future. What Triton will do is surveil unprecedentedly huge swaths of ocean as it orbits, employing a classified sensor suite to maintain 360-degree persistent observation out to 2,000 nautical miles in every direction. This sensor package includes a new state-of-the-art radar system that doesn't just register surface ships as blips on a map but identifies them as well, distinguishing between commercial shipping vessels, fishing trawlers, or surfacing Chinese submarines.

    There are currently four Triton airframes in various phases of flight-readiness at Northrop Grumman's manufacturing and test facilities near Palmdale, Calif. After the first of those aircraft finishes initial envelope testing at Palmdale this year, it will make the long flight from California to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, where the Navy will go to work proving out the hardware with its own battery of test flights. The first Triton squadron will enter service next year, training on the aircraft will commence in 2015, and the fleet will enter service in 2017 -- years before anything else like it.

    All said, the Navy plans to spend $13 billion over the course of the Triton program, or roughly $190 million for each of the 68 complete aircraft systems on order, including ground control stations and other associated hardware. That investment will be spread around the industry and the country. While Northrop Grumman manufactures the fuselage and various other parts of the aircraft (it also handles final assembly), Rolls-Royce produces the engine in Indianapolis, Triumph Aerostructures-Vought Aircraft constructs the 131-foot wing in Dallas, and Raytheon (RTN) constructs the sensor turret in McKinney, Texas. Other collaborators include Sierra Nevada Corp., L-3 Communications (LLL), and Aurora Flight Sciences.

    For its $13 billion, the Navy believes Triton will be able to operate at lower cost in the future, as it will gather more and better intelligence at a lower cost per flight hour than manned aircraft. It will so with fewer operators on the ground than many other unmanned platforms require. Moreover, Triton is designed to eventually interface with the P-8 Poseidon, the manned maritime reconnaissance and strike aircraft that will replace the Navy's current fleet of P-3 Orion recon aircraft. Eventually, Capt. Hoke says, the Titan will be operated by crews aboard the P-8s, moving naval aviation operations toward a future in which unmanned aerial vehicles and manned aircraft interface to work together seamlessly in-theater.

    All of this is assuming defense budget cuts don't catch up with the Triton program before it reaches fruition. But the Navy is optimistic. The technology offers such a huge leap forward in capability and is already so far along that it would be hard to justify gutting the program now. "We'll probably have to make adjustments going forward based on budgetary pressures," Capt. Hoke says. "But Triton has a great base of support."  

    不过MQ4C Triton不能在航空母舰上起降。它的翼展甚至超过了波音737，对于航空母舰来说太大了。另外它也不能携带武器，不过它机翼下方预置的武器挂点说明未来依然存在整合武器系统的可能。但目前它最大的任务就是在海洋上空对一个史无前例的大作战半径进行侦查，通过一套能保持360度持续观测的传感设备，它能收集到任何方向2000海里以内的海面情况。这套传感设备中包括一套最先进的雷达系统，它不仅能探测到所有海面船只，而且还能识别目标到底是商用船舶、渔船，还是浮出水面的中国潜艇。

    在棕榈谷附近的诺斯罗普格鲁曼公司（Northrop Grumman）的制造和测试基地里，目前已经有四架MQ4C Triton飞机处于不同的飞行准备阶段。等到今年其中的第一架飞机在棕榈谷完成静态测试后，它会从加州飞到马里兰州帕图森河的海军航空基地。美国海军将在那里使用自己的电池进行试飞，对硬件进行验证。第一批MQ4C Triton将于明年投入使用，美国海军将从2015年起着手针对该型无人机进行训练，2017年将有大批MQ4C Triton正式编入现役。

    美军海军计划向为Triton项目投入130亿美元，目前美军已经订购了68架该型无人机，也就是平均每架1.9亿美元。这笔投资金将由整个行业和美国政府分摊。诺斯罗普格鲁曼公司主要生产该机型的机身和大量的其它零部件，包括最后对飞机进行总装；罗尔斯罗伊斯公司（Rolls-Royce）在印第安那波利斯市生产飞机引擎；胜利沃特飞机技术公司（Triumph Aerostructures-Vought Aircraf）在达拉斯生产其131英尺长的机翼；雷神公司（Raytheon）在德州的麦金尼生产传感器吊塔。另外参与了这个项目的公司还包括Sierra Nevada Corp公司、L3通讯公司、极光飞行科技公司（Aurora Flight Sciences）等。

    至于130亿美元的价格是不是太高了，美国海军认为，Triton无人机未来可以以很低的成本运行。因为它每一架次的成本都比载人飞机要低，同时还能执行更多、更高质量的情报侦察工作。同时它的地面操作人员人数也少于其它无人机平台。更重要的是，Triton无人机的设计目的是最终与美国海军的P-8“波塞冬”反潜机进行链接，而P-8最终将取代的是目前美军的P-3“猎户座”反潜机。美国海军上校霍克表示，Triton最终将由P-8“波塞冬”反潜机里的机组人员操作。届时，无人机将和有人机的界面实现无缝整合，将海军的航空力量提升到一个新的高度。

    要想实现这个目标，前提条件是美国国防预算的削减行动不能在Triton项目成熟之前伤及这个项目。不过美国海军对此表示了乐观，因为Triton项目不仅在技术上是个巨大的飞跃，而且目前已经取得了很大的成功，因此不太可能在这时来个釜底抽薪。霍克上校说：“将来我们可能会因为预算压力做一些调整，但是Triton项目拥有的支持基础还是很坚实的。”（财富中文网）

    译者：朴成奎