【4月15日】看軍聞學英語

■刀客

原文：

Hypersonic weapons can take missile warfare, particularly nuclear warfare, to a new–and, for many, frightening–level.

They can travel much faster than current nuclear-capable ballistic and cruise missiles at low altitudes, can switch direction in flight and do not follow a predictable arc like conventional missiles, making them much harder to track and intercept.

Even as conventionally armed, non-nuclear weapons, they are viewed by analysts as raising the danger of conflict, because an adversary might not know how they are armed when launched.

The Pentagon is pressing to catch up with rivals Moscow and Beijing in the race to develop hypersonics, even as it recognizes they could dangerously raise the risks of a nuclear conflict, as countries struggle to build defenses against them.

中譯：

極音速武器可使飛彈戰爭，尤其是核戰，推向一個全新、且讓許多人感到恐懼的境界。

極音速武器比目前掛載核彈頭的彈道飛彈及巡弋飛彈，在低空飛得更快，飛行中可變換方向，而且不像傳統飛彈循可預測弧線飛行，使得追蹤與攔截更加困難。

即便是傳統非核武器，分析家仍認為會提升衝突的危險性。因為敵方無法得知這類武器發射時的武裝方式。

五角大廈正加緊趕上莫斯科和北京在極音速發展競賽的步調，即便美國明白，當各國都全力防衛這兩大競爭對手時，可能會大幅提升核子衝突的風險。

-關鍵軍語-

※nuclear warfare:

Military conflict involving the use of nuclear weapons.

※conflict:

A state of hostility or war.

例句：

During the Cold War era, crises never escalated to a global armed conflict.

在冷戰時期，危機從未提升到全球武裝衝突的地步。