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The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is a terrifying piece of military kit. The stealth bomber can fly undetected for many thousands of miles to drop a thermonuclear bomb on pretty much any target on the planet. According to one government estimate, each B-2 in operation on average has cost the US Air Force $2.1bn to develop and deploy. 诺思罗普格鲁曼公司(Northrop Grumman) B-2“幽灵”是一种可怕的军事装备。这种隐形轰炸机能够在不被发现的情况下飞行数千英里，向地球上几乎任何一处目标投放一枚热核炸弹。根据某一项政府估算，每架服役的B-2轰炸机的开发和部署花费了美国空军21亿美元。 Clearly, very few countries have the money or the technology to invent such weapons systems. There are also very few occasions on which such weapons can be used (God willing). The US therefore remains dominant in what it terms its first and second offset strategies: clear supremacy in nuclear weapons and precision-guided missiles. But although such technologies remain necessary to offset the challenges of rival powers, they are no longer sufficient in our rapidly changing world. 显然，没有几个国家拥有发明这种武器系统的财力或技术。能够用上这种武器的场合也很少（但愿如此）。因此，美国在其所谓的第一、二次抵消战略中仍然占主导地位：也就是核武器和精确制导武器上的绝对优势。但尽管这些技术对抵消竞争势力的挑战依然必不可少，但在我们这个瞬息万变的世界中，仅仅拥有这些技术已经不再足够。 | 
