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Gremlins' principal jobs would be intercepting communications, jamming signals and hunting for things to be destroyed, thus softening up the defences in contested airspace to make it safer for crewed aircraft. Such drones could also be armed with small missiles or explosives for a kamikaze attack. And they would both share data and co-operate among themselves, and pass reconnaissance and targeting information back to warships and aircraft able to fire bigger missiles than they could carry.
小精灵的主要任务将是拦截通信、干扰信号以及搜寻摧毁目标，从而削弱作战空域中的防御力量，让有人战机的处境更安全。这种无人机还可以装备小型导弹或者自杀式袭击炸弹。它们彼此间会共享数据，相互协作，并将侦察和攻击目标的信息传回给那些能发射它们无力搭载的更大型导弹的军舰和飞机。
Gremlin swarms would no doubt suffer losses. But drawing enemy fire would actually be an objective, says Andrew Krepinevich, the boss of a defence consultancy called Solarium, which advises the defence department on aspects of naval and aerial warfare. This way, Gremlins would flush out the position of any hostile missile battery that switched on its targeting radar, marking it for subsequent destruction.
毫无疑问，小精灵机群会遭受损伤。但是，为美国国防部提供海空作战建议的国防咨询公司Solarium的老板安德鲁克雷皮内维奇（Andrew Krepinevich）表示，吸引敌方火力实际上本身就会是一个目的。一旦任何敌方导弹阵地打开瞄准雷达，小精灵就拿到了它的方位，把它标记下来以待后续摧毁。
In the calculus of combat, sacrificing a drone or two to knock out an enemy air-defence battery makes for a nice swap. Gremlins should therefore be thought of as "tradable" for systems of greater value, says Mr Wierzbanowski. The better to fool the foe, military planners also envisage airlaunched drones that mimic the radar and heat signatures of bigger fighter jets and bombers. This would be done by using shapes and materials that reflect rather than absorbing radar pings, and by leaving an engine's heat signature unmasked. The illusion could be enhanced by flying drones at speeds and in patterns indicative of larger aircraft.
在作战的得失考量中，牺牲一两架无人机就能摧毁敌方的防空阵地，这笔账很划算。所以应该把小精灵视为“可交易”更高价值的系统，维尔兹巴诺夫斯基表示。为了更好地迷惑敌人，军事规划人员还设想让空基发射的无人机模仿大型战斗机和轰炸机的雷达和热信号。这就需要使用能反射而不是吸收雷达波的外形和材料，并不再遮蔽发动机的热信号。如果无人机再模拟大型飞机的飞行速度和模式，以假乱真的程度还可能更高。
On top of all this, a defender's need to squander precious attention and pricey missiles on incoming cheap drones will give its adversary's more capable aircraft freer rein. Enthusiasts for air-launched drones therefore see value in numbers. Putting lots of blips on radar screens is a good way to fluster an enemy with "complexity and multiple dilemmas", says Tim Keeter, who manages the Gremlins programme at Dynetics, DARPA's principal contractor for the project.
最重要的是，防御一方需要把宝贵的注意力和昂贵的导弹耗费在来袭的廉价无人机上，这就给了对手更厉害的飞机更多机会施展拳脚。空基发射无人机的拥趸因此看到了它们在以量取胜上的价值。让雷达显示屏上出现大量光点是用“复杂性和多重困境”来扰乱敌人的好办法，DARPA小精灵项目的主要承包商Dynetics的项目负责人蒂姆·基特（TimKeeter）表示。
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