"There’s not a lot of detail, but from what there is, there’s no need to hyperventilate," said Laura Grego, an astrophysicist at MIT.

麻省理工学院天体物理学家劳拉·格雷戈（LauraGrego）说：“没有太多细节，但从现有情况来看，没有必要过度通气。”。

 

By   THERESA HITCHENS

on May 19, 2022

特蕾莎·希钦斯

2022 年 5 月 19 日

 

Russia’s Peresvet laser system. (Russian Ministry of Defense)

俄罗斯Peresvet激光系统。（俄罗斯国防部）

 

WASHINGTON: Claims by a top Russian official that Moscow has unveiled a powerful new laser weapon prototype to attack drones and satellites being used in Ukraine should be taken with a boulder of salt, experts say.

华盛顿：专家说，俄罗斯高级官员声称莫斯科已经公布了一种强大的新型激光武器原型，以攻击乌克兰使用的无人机和卫星，这一说法应该被全盘否定。

 

“As with some many things that comes from the Russians, it’s hard to separate fact from fiction,” said Mark Lewis, head of the National Defense Industrial Agency’s Emerging Technologies Institute and former acting undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.

美国国防工业局新兴技术研究所所长、前国防部研究与工程代理副部长马克·刘易斯（Mark Lewis）表示：“正如许多来自俄罗斯的东西一样，很难将事实与虚构区分开来。”

 

Laura Grego, an astrophysicist at MIT with expertise in directed-energy, summed up: “There’s not a lot of detail, but from what there is, there’s no need to hyperventilate.”

麻省理工学院（MIT）天体物理学家劳拉·格雷戈（LauraGrego）在定向能方面拥有丰富的专业知识，她总结道：“没有太多细节，但从现有情况来看，没有必要过度通气。”

 

Speculation about the purported new weapon began on Wednesday when Western media picked up statements to Russian state television by Yury Borisov, Russia’s deputy prime minister in charge of military development, claiming that a prototype of a drone-killing laser weapon had already been tested and is being used in Ukraine. That system, called “Zadira,” is more powerful than Russia’s Peresvet laser system revealed by President Vladimir Putin in 2018, he said.

周三，当西方媒体接获俄罗斯负责军事发展的副总理尤里·鲍里索夫（Yury Borisov）向俄罗斯国家电视台发表的声明时，有关这种所谓的新武器的猜测开始了，声称一种无人机杀伤激光武器的原型已经经过测试，并且正在在乌克兰使用。他说，这个名为“Zadira”的系统比俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京在2018年披露的Peresvet激光系统更强大。

 

“If Peresvet blinds, then the new generation of laser weapons lead to the physical destruction of the target — thermal destruction, they burn up,” Borisov told Russian state television.

“如果Peresvet失明，那么新一代激光武器会导致目标的物理破坏——热破坏，它们会燃烧殆尽，”鲍里索夫告诉俄罗斯国家电视台。

 

The problem, experts said, is the Peresvet and Zadira appear to be designed to do different things, neither of which is particularly novel or technically impressive.

专家说，问题在于Peresvet和Zadira似乎被设计用于做不同的事情，这两者都不是特别新颖或技术上令人印象深刻。

 

Some four or five Peresvet systems have been deployed in Russia alongside its mobile ICBM, Topol-MR, Secure World Foundation’s Brian Weeden said in a tweet today. Weeden is a co-editor of the foundation’s annual “Global Counterspace Capabilities” report, the latest of which includes a section on the Peresvet describing it a a “laser dazzler” comprising “a laser connected to a gimbaled mirror, all of which is mounted inside a truck-towed trailer.”

安全世界基金会的布莱恩·韦登（BrianWeeden）今天在推特上表示，俄罗斯已经部署了大约四到五套Peresvet系统，以及其移动洲际弹道导弹Topol MR。韦登是基金会年度“全球反空间能力”报告的联合编辑，其中最新的一份报告包括Peresvet上的一节，描述它是一个“激光眩目器”，包括“一个连接到万向镜的激光，所有这些都安装在卡车牵引的拖车内。”

 

Borisov said that Peresvet could blind satellites orbiting at altitudes up to 1,500 kilometers, the upper ranges of Low Earth Orbit where many Earth imaging satellites, including spy sats operated by the National Reconnaissance Office, reside.

鲍里索夫说，Peresvet可以使运行在1,500公里高度的卫星失明，这是近地轨道的上部，许多地球成像卫星，包括由美国家侦察局操作的间谍卫星，都驻留于此。

 

The ability to dazzle a satellite at that range isn’t a particularly amazing capability, especially given that most modern optical imaging satellites carry cameras that included lenses that function like human eyelids, and simply close when they detect any potentially blinding light source (natural or otherwise).

在这一范围内使卫星眩目的能力并不是特别令人惊奇的能力，尤其是考虑到大多数现代光学成像卫星携带的相机包括像人类眼睑一样的镜头，当它们检测到任何潜在的致盲光源（自然或其他）时，只需关闭即可。

 

“Laser systems that can damage tougher and more distant targets such as ICBMs or orbiting satellites are quite some years away. Satellite sensors definitely can be vulnerable to being dazzled or blinded if they are not protected, but certainly much less so if they are well-designed,” Grego said.

格雷戈说：“距离能够摧毁洲际弹道导弹或轨道卫星等更坚固、更遥远目标的激光系统还有好几年的时间。卫星传感器如果不受保护，肯定会容易眩目或失明，但如果设计得当，则肯定会少很多。”

 

The 2022 Defense Intelligence Agency report on “Challenges to Security in Space,” which tends toward the forward-leaning in its threat assessments, found that Beijing “may” field lasers that could cause structural satellite damage by the mid- to late-2020s; and Russia maybe by 2030.

2022年美国国防情报局（Defense Intelligence Agency）关于“太空安全面临的挑战”（Challenges to Security in Space）的报告在其威胁评估中倾向于前瞻，该报告发现，北京“可能”在2020年代中后期发射激光，可能导致结构性卫星损坏；俄罗斯可能到2030年。

 

As for Zadira, Borisov’s comments appear to indicate that it is aimed at drones, not satellites. That makes sense, said one defense industry source, in that Ukraine is successfully deploying drones in the on-going war.

至于Zadira，鲍里索夫的评论似乎表明它针对的是无人机，而不是卫星。一位国防工业消息人士说，这是有道理的，因为乌克兰在正在进行的战争中成功地部署了无人机。

 

“This article seems to be lumping together counterdrone lasers with counterspace lasers. Those are two very different applications, and I have not yet seen anything to suggest that Russia has used counterspace laser,” the industry source said.

“这篇文章似乎将防空激光与反太空激光混为一谈。这是两种截然不同的应用，我还没有看到任何迹象表明俄罗斯使用了反太空激光，”业内人士表示。

 

“Counterdrone lasers make perfect sense and that is not surprising at all — Russia is getting hammered by small, loitering drones right now. I’m not convinced their ‘prototype’ system will actually prove effective, but I have no doubt they are trying to get it to work,” the source added.

这位消息人士补充道：“反无人机激光非常有意义，这一点也不奇怪——俄罗斯现在正受到小型游荡无人机的打击。我不相信他们的‘原型’系统会被证明是有效的，但我毫不怀疑他们正在努力使其发挥作用。”

 

Grego agreed: “The Zadira looks to be a battlefield laser weapon designed to target nearby and relatively fragile systems such as drones. Countries like the United States already deploy laser systems for such targets. The Army has short-range laser defenses and the Navy is beginning to field a system that could target things like rubber dinghies, and the Pentagon is aiming to field more powerful systems that could destroy artillery or mortars.”

格雷戈同意：“Zadira看起来是一种战场激光武器，旨在瞄准附近和相对脆弱的系统，如无人机。美国等国家已经为此类目标部署了激光系统。陆军拥有短程激光防御系统，海军正在开始部署一种可以瞄准橡皮艇等目标的系统，五角大楼正在部署更强大的系统可以摧毁火炮或迫击炮。”

 

Just last month Breaking Defense reported Israel’s announcement that its laser system took out not only drones but mortars and rockets in mid-air.

就在上个月，《突破防御》报道说，以色列宣布其激光系统不仅摧毁了无人机，还摧毁了空中的迫击炮和火箭。