武器的樂園

????將全球部分最先進的海軍武器匯總在一塊兒，擺進一個大廳里，這個大廳里到處是各種戰斗機的模型、最新型的無人機、一排排涂成灰色的精確制導炸彈、嚇人的自動艦防炮，以及各種高性能的攝相頭和傳感器——非常多的傳感器！這就是一年一度的美國海軍軍事技術盛會——美國海空天博覽會的場景。它將最新的海軍武器及支持系統與使用這些武器的人聚在一起，它既是行業博覽會，也是武器展銷會，同時也是國防行業的一次盛典。

????它也是全球軍火業的一次頂尖展會。從美國海軍，到波音公司（Boeing）、洛克希德馬丁（Lockheed Martin） 、諾斯羅普格曼（Northrop Grumman）、德事隆（Textron）、亨廷頓英戈爾斯（Huntington Ingalls）等全球知名航空航海公司，都經常會趁這個盛會發布最新型武器裝備。同時軍火商和軍方也通過這次盛會給我們提供了一個機會，看看明天的精尖武器會是什么樣子。

????在這個經濟緊縮時代的武器采購會是什么樣子的？大家不妨想象一下，機器人、無人機和各種新型武器會怎樣讓上一代的武器變成更有效、更具性價比的現代國防工具的。

Wonderland of weapons

????Take a small legion of top navy brass from around the globe, pack them into a convention hall full of mocked-up fighter jets, the latest in unmanned aerial hardware, rows of matte gray precision guided projectiles, menacing robotic shipboard defense cannons, and myriad high-powered cameras and sensors -- so many sensors! -- and you can start to envision Sea-Air-Space, the Navy's annual defense technology confab. Designed to put the latest in naval armament and support systems in the same room with the very people who use them, Sea-Air-Space is part industry trade show, part arms bazaar, and part defense industry social event.

????It's also something of a bellwether for the global defense industry. Sea-Air-Space is often the venue for big reveals from both the Navy and the biggest names in aerospace and maritime technology--names like Boeing (BA, Fortune 500), Lockheed Martin (LMT, Fortune 500),Northrop Grumman (NOC, Fortune 500), Textron (TXT, Fortune 500), and Huntington Ingalls (HII). But it's also a place where contractors and militaries offer glimpses into their ongoing programs of record and let us see -- or at least extrapolate -- what the fighting forces of tomorrow will look like.

????What does arms procurement in the age of austerity look like? Think robots, drones, and retrofits that make the dumb weapons of previous generations into more efficient, more cost effective tools of modern defense.