中国造彩虹4 无人机在伊拉克首次参与实战
HONG KONG — After more than a decade of fighting in Iraq, the names of the American-made drones striking targets there have become familiar: Predator, Reaper, Sentinel.
香港——在伊拉克作战十年之后，打击各种目标的美制无人驾驶飞机的名号变得耳熟能详：“捕食者”(Predator)、“死神”(Reaper)、“哨兵”(Sentinel)。
But this month, a new model entered the fray: the Chinese-made Caihong-4.
但在本月，一个新的型号加入竞争：中国制造的“彩虹4”。
According to footage released by the Iraqi armed forces, soldiers used the Chinese drone on Dec. 6 to destroy an ISIS position amid efforts to retake the city of Ramadi. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense confirmed the video was real.
根据伊拉克武装部队发布的视频，在12月6日，尝试夺回拉马迪市的过程中，士兵利用这种中国无人机摧毁了一个ISIS据点。国防部发言人证实，视频是真实的。
The lethal strike represents a major step forward in China’s drive to become a leading exporter of military equipment, experts say. Iraq is the only known user of the drone, also known as the CH-4, which closely resembles the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper.
专家说，这次致命攻击代表中国朝着军事设备主要出口国的地位迈进了一大步。目前，伊拉克是这种无人机在实战中的唯一已知使用者。它也被称作CH-4，与通用原子公司(General Atomics)的MQ-9死神非常相似。
Its first use in combat may be a selling point for potential buyers.
对潜在买家来说，它在战争中的首次使用可能是个卖点。
“This is the first time I’ve heard of a Chinese drone, such as the CH-4 (which is basically a clone of the Reaper), reporting an actual kill, and I suppose it would be cliché to say that it won’t be the last,” Richard A. Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, wrote in an email on Wednesday.
新加坡南洋理工大学(Nanyang Technological University) 拉惹勒南国际研究学院(S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies)高级研究员理查德·A·毕辛格(Richard A. Bitzinger)周三在一封电邮里写道，“这是我头次听说CH-4（它基本上克隆了死神）等中国无人机传出击毙敌人的消息。我想，一种老套的说法是，这不会是最后一次传出类似消息。”
Mr. Bitzinger estimated that Iraq’s armed forces had to buy six to 12 Chinese drones to conduct operations efficiently.
毕辛格估计，伊拉克武装部队要买入六至十二架中国制无人机才能展开有效行动。
“When the Iraqi MoD officially unveiled them in October, two ground control stations could be seen,” Jeremy Binnie, Middle East/Africa editor at IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly, wrote in an email, referring to the Ministry of Defense. “Given a typical setup of two aircraft per control station, Iraq probably has at least four.”
“伊拉克国防部十月份把它们公开亮相时，我们可以看到两个地面控制站，”《简氏防务周刊》(IHS Jane’s Defence Weekly)中东/非洲编辑杰里米·宾尼(Jeremy Binnie)在一封电邮里写道。“鉴于每个控制站通常会操控两架飞机，伊拉克很可能至少有四架。”
China also uses the CH-4. Its predecessor, the CH-3, has been sold to both Nigeria and Pakistan, he said.
中国也在使用CH-4。他说，CH-4的前身CH-3已经销往尼日利亚和巴基斯坦。
Last year, China became the world’s third-largest arms exporter, behind the United States and Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think tank in Sweden. China’s defense companies have been working hard to export higher-end systems — like drones, air defense systems and even stealth fighters — but with few successes so far.
据瑞典智库斯德哥尔摩国际和平研究所(Stockholm International Peace Research Institute)透露，去年，中国成为继美国和俄罗斯之后的世界第三大军火出口国。中国的军工企业一直努力出口高端系统——比如无人机、防空系统，甚至隐形战斗机，但迄今为止，收获甚少。
The CH-4, whose name translates as “Rainbow,” is manufactured by the Beijing-based China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, a state-owned enterprise group. The drone “represents China’s research and production of drones march toward the world,” according to a news article from 2014 on the conglomerate’s website.
彩虹-4无人机的生产商是位于北京的国企中国航天科技集团公司。该集团网站2014年的一篇新闻报道称，这款无人机“代表了中国研制的无人机正在走向世界。”
Calls and a fax sent to C.A.S.C. went unanswered.
中国航天科技集团没有回复寻求置评的电话和传真。
The drone was first seen at an airshow in Beijing in 2013, according to China News Service. In March 2015, a state-run news agency said such drones had been handed to the Iraqi Air Force, citing Russian news reports. In October, Iraq’s defense minister inspected a Caihong drone at an air base in the city of Kut, according to a video shared by his ministry.
据中国新闻社报道，这款无人机于2013年在北京航展首次亮相。2015年3月，一家官方新闻机构援引俄罗斯的新闻报道称，中国已经向伊拉克空军交付此型号的无人机。伊拉克国防部公布的视频显示，该国国防部长今年10月在伊拉克库特空军基地时曾查看一架彩虹无人机。
The CH-4 can strike from an altitude of about 16,000 feet and fly at up to 112 miles per hour, according to an article in China Space News, a publication run by C.A.S.C.
据中国航天科技集团旗下的《中国航天报》报道，该无人机巡航高度为5000米至7000米，巡航时速为150公里至180公里。
“What is clear is that the price of one Caihong-4 drone is much lower than the price of an advanced battle tank on the international arms market,” said the article, published in March.
该报今年3月发表的文章称，“可以肯定的是，一架彩虹-4无人机售价会远远低于国际军贸市场上一辆先进主战坦克的价格。”
The loss of a drone is “affordable even when military budgets are tight or in small countries,” it noted.
该文章指出，“即使是军费不甚宽裕的中、小国家也完全损失得起。”
Chinese-built drones and aircraft are generally built to compete on price, experts say. Technological limitations mean the finished products do not often perform at the same level as their Western counterparts, but they are cheaper — and have far fewer restrictions on who can buy them.
专家们表示，中国制造的无人机及飞机通常是以价格取胜。技术限制意味着，其成品的性能通常不如西方同行的产品，但它们价格比较低，而且针对购买者的限制要少得多。
“China is known to have difficulties in developing aero engine technology, and this is also true for UAV engines. As a result, Chinese UAVs are generally less capable in terms of performance,” Kelvin Wong, an Asia Pacific defense technology reporter with IHS, wrote in an email, referring to unmanned aerial vehicles.
《简氏防务周刊》亚太国防技术记者凯尔文·黄(Kelvin Wong)在邮件中写道，“众所周知，中国在研发航空发动机技术方面遇到了困难，无人机发动机的情况也是一样。因此，中国的无人机在性能上通常差一些。”
As resources are scarce for Iraq’s armed forces, Chinese drones offer a fast alternative to allied air strikes, according to Jeffrey Lin and Peter W. Singer, who have traced reports of Chinese drone deployments in Iraq, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.
据追踪有关伊拉克、尼日利亚及沙特阿拉伯使用中国无人机情况的报道的杰弗里·林(Jeffrey Lin)和彼得·W·辛格(Peter W. Singer)透露，由于伊拉克武装部队资源匮乏，中国无人机不失为联合空袭行动的一个快速生效的替代选择。
“The long loiter time and precision weaponry of armed drones give small Iraqi units flexible and rapid response fire support to exploit sudden battlefield conditions,” they wrote in a blog post on on Tuesday.
他们在周二发布的博文中写道，“武装无人机航行时间较长，携带精确武器，这为小规模的伊拉克部队提供了灵活、快速的火力支援，以对突如其来的战情加以利用。”
Apart from the lower price of Chinese drones, restrictions imposed by the United States on the export of armed unmanned systems open a potentially lucrative market for Chinese manufacturers, Timothy R. Heath, a senior international defense research analyst with the RAND Corporation, wrote in an email.
兰德公司(RAND Corporation)高级国际防御研究分析师蒂莫西·R·西斯(Timothy R. Heath)在邮件中写道，除了中国无人机价格较低这个因素之外，美国对无人系统的出口限制也为中国生产商打开了一个可能带来巨大回报的市场。
“Considering the number of countries that have acquired or expressed interest in Chinese drones, the recent incident in Iraq in which a government uses Chinese armed drones to strike domestic insurgents may become more commonplace around the world,” he wrote.
他说，“伊拉克政府最近利用中国武装无人机攻击国内叛乱分子，鉴于有很多国家已经拿到中国无人机或对此表示兴趣，这种情况可能在世界范围内变得比较普遍。”
Indeed, dozens of countries now manufacture reconnaissance drones, Mr. Bitzinger noted. And their use is all but expected on the modern battlefield.
毕辛格指出，实际上现在有几十个国家在生产无人驾驶侦察机。因此它们会在现代战场上亮相也在意料之中。
“Now it appears that armed drones (Chinese, European, Iranian, Russian) are the next phase in this proliferation,” he wrote.
他写道，“在接下来的一个阶段里，似乎会出现（来自中国、欧洲、伊朗及俄罗斯的）武装无人机的扩散。”
