【4月28日】看軍聞學英語

■刀客

原文：

U.S. Army and Marines have launched multiple efforts to lighten the weapons and equipment grunts carried while fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, but ammunition weight has always been an Achilles' heel for these efforts.

Early attempts at lighter, plastic-cased cartridge designs failed to meet military standards, but recent technical advances by a few bold companies have prompted the both services to launch new efforts to test polymer-cased ammo for infantry units.

‘Soldiers on combat patrols in Afghanistan typically carry 92 to 105 pounds of mission-essential equipment. This overload causes fatigue, heat stress, injury and performance degradation for soldiers,’according to a 2005 report by ARDEC at Picatinny Arsenal on‘Alternative Cartridge Case Material and Design.’

中譯：

美國陸軍及陸戰隊為減輕步兵在伊拉克及阿富汗作戰所攜帶武器裝備的重量，已做出不少努力，而彈藥一直是難以克服的要害。

早期為設計更輕巧的塑膠彈殼子彈所做多次嘗試，都不符合軍規，但某些公司勇於突破，最近在技術上的進展，已促使這2個軍種為步兵單位測試聚合物彈殼彈藥，展開新的努力。

位於皮卡汀尼兵工廠的武器研發暨工程中心，在2005年論析「替代性彈殼材質與設計」報告中指出，阿富汗的戰鬥巡邏兵，通常要攜行92到105磅任務所需基本裝備，負荷過重，會造成士兵疲憊、熱應力、受傷及表現低弱。

-關鍵軍語-

※ARDEC:

The Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center.

※grunt:

A slang for infantryman in both Army and Marine.

例句：

The Corps is axing all of its tank battalions and cutting grunt units.

陸戰隊正在裁撤所有戰車營，並刪減步兵單位。