【4月24日】看軍聞學英語

■刀客

原文：

The USAF has retired the first of 17 B-1B Lancers that need expensive repairs to remain in service, further reducing its fleet of an aircraft designed to counter Cold War foes.

The service plans to retire the 17 supersonic bombers for the purpose of freeing funds and resources needed to support a smaller fleet of 45 B-1Bs. The project should also free money to purchase the in-development Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider stealth bomber.

Of the 100 Lancers built, the USAF decided in 2001 to retire 33 to pay for modernization efforts at the time.

‘Due to the wear and tear placed on the B-1 fleet over the past two decades, maintaining these bombers would cost tens of millions of dollars per aircraft to get back to status quo. And that's just to fix the problems we know about,’ says General Tim Ray, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, on 17 February.‘We're just accelerating planned retirements.’

中譯：

首波17架須高價維修才能繼續服役的B-1B「槍騎兵」戰略轟炸機，將由美國空軍汰除，再次下修這款設計用來對付冷戰宿敵的飛機機隊數量。

該軍種規劃汰除這17架超音速轟炸機，目的在將所需預算及資源，挹注於支應45架規模較小的B-1B機隊。該計畫應可騰出預算，採購諾斯洛普·格魯曼公司尚在研發的B-21「突襲者」匿蹤轟炸機。

美國空軍2001年決定，將所打造100架「槍騎兵」轟炸機的其中33架除役，以支應當前用於現代化的經費。

美國空軍全球打擊司令部司令雷伊上將2月17日表示，由於B-1機隊過去20年所產生的損耗，使得這些轟炸機的維修，每架要花數千萬美元，才能回復到現況，而這麼做僅能解決現有的問題而已，目前所做的，不過就是加速計畫性汰除罷了。

─關鍵軍語─

※counter:

To take action in order to prevent.

※supersonic:

Relating to speeds from one to five times the speed of sound in air.

※foe:

Enemy or opponent.

例句：

US Army's future tactical glasses will help soldiers tell friend from foe.

美國陸軍未來的戰術眼鏡，可協助官兵識別敵友。

嘉．言．語．錄

Every man should bear his own grievances and inconveniences, rather than detract from or abridge the comfort of others.--Marcus Tullius Cicero

每個人均應承受自己的不滿及困難，而非減損或剝奪他人的安逸。--馬庫斯·圖利烏斯·西塞羅

（取自美國空軍網站）