美国军方正在美国中西部6个州，使用高空气球，进行大范围监控测试。

据英国《卫报》爆料，美国联邦通信委员会（Federal Communications Commission）的文件显示，美国军方正在中西部的南达科他、明尼苏达、爱荷华、威斯康星、密苏里、伊利诺伊6个州范围内，使用实验性高海拔气球进行广域范围的监控测试。

美墨边境上的海关边境巡逻监控气球（图 via AFP）

五角大楼从偏远的南达科他州放飞了25个无人驾驶太阳能气球，飞行高度达到65000英尺。它们从南达科他州升空，漂浮250英里，途经明尼苏达、爱荷华、威斯康星和密苏里州的部分区域，最后在伊利诺伊州中部降落。

根据一份代表内华达山脉公司（Sierra Nevada Corporation）（一家航空航天和国防公司）提交的文件显示，这些气球是为了“提供一个持续的监视系统，来定位和阻止毒品走私和国土安全威胁”（provide a persistent surveillance system to locate and deter narcotic trafficking and homeland security threats）。

The balloons are carrying hi-tech radars designed to simultaneously track many individual vehicles day or night, through any kind of weather. The tests, which have not previously been reported, received an FCC license to operate from mid-July until September, following similar flights licensed last year.气球上装有高科技雷达，可以在任何天气条件下，不分昼夜地同时跟踪许多车辆。这些测试此前从未被报道过。这些测试获得了联邦通讯委员会的许可，测试可以从7月中旬一直持续到9月。去年也有类似的测试行动。Arthur Holland Michel, the co-director of the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College in New York, said, “What this new technology proposes is to watch everything at once. Sometimes it’s referred to as ‘combat TiVo’ because when an event happens somewhere in the surveilled area, you can potentially rewind the tape to see exactly what occurred, and rewind even further to see who was involved and where they came from.”纽约巴德学院无人机研究中心的联席主任阿瑟·霍兰德·米歇尔说，“这项新技术的目的是要同时观察所有东西。有时它被称为“战斗TiVo”（TiVo是美国数字录象机设备，能帮助人们录下和筛选电视上播放过的节目），因为当一个事件发生在被监视区域的某个地方时，你可以倒带，看看到底发生了什么，甚至可以倒回去，看看谁参与其中，他们来自哪里。”

▲Pentagon testing mass surveillance balloons across the US (via The Guardian)

（图 via Getty Images）

此外，这些由美国国防部的南方司令部（United States Southern Command）放飞的气球还搭载了不少设备。

The balloons also carry small vehicles containing sensors and communications equipment. The loadout includes a synthetic aperture radar designed to be able to detect every single moving car or boat active in a 25-mile field beneath the balloon.这些气球还携带装有传感器和通讯设备的小型运载工具。载荷包括一个合成孔径雷达，设计用来探测气球下方25英里区域内移动着的每一辆汽车或每一艘船只。The craft operate as a network, fitted with advanced mesh networking technologies meaning they can communicate with one another. The balloons can pass information—including video—to each other and to receivers on the ground.这些气球配备了先进的网状网络技术，运作起来成为一个网络，意味着它们可以彼此通信。气球可以互相传递信息，包括视频，也可以传递给地面上的接收器。The Guardian suggested the balloons may be carrying Sierra Nevada's advanced Gorgon Stare video capture system, which is already in use in U.S. military drones. The Pentagon has also used Gorgon Stare on surveillance blimps in Afghanistan. It consists of nine cameras recording panoramic images, enabling operators to capture activity across an entire city at once.《卫报》表示，气球可能携带内华达山脉公司先进的“戈尔贡凝视”视频捕捉系统，该系统已经在美国军用无人机上使用。在阿富汗，五角大楼还在监视飞船上使用“戈尔贡凝视”。它由9个摄像机组成，可以记录全景图像，使操作者能够同时捕捉整个城市的活动。

▲Pentagon Is Testing High Altitude Surveillance Balloons to 'Watch Everything at Once': 'It's Disturbing' (via Newsweek)

（图 via Alamy）

不过，这些测试已经引起了民权活动人士的担忧，他们认为，监控行动必然会收集大量有关公民日常生活的数据。

“We do not think that American cities should be subject to wide-area surveillance in which every vehicle could be tracked wherever they go,” Jay Stanley, a policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Guardian. “Even in tests, they’re still collecting a lot of data on Americans: who’s driving to the union house, the church, the mosque, the Alzheimer’s clinic.”美国公民自由联盟政策分析师杰伊斯坦利向《卫报》表示：“我们认为，美国城市不应受到广域监控，在这种监控下，每辆车，无论走到哪里，都可以被追踪。即使处于测试阶段，他们仍在收集大量美国人的数据：谁正开着车去学生会所、教堂、清真寺、阿尔茨海默症诊所。”We should not go down the road of allowing this to be used in the United States and it’s disturbing to hear that these tests are being carried out, by the military no less.我们不应该让这种东西在美国使用，听到这些试验是由军方进行的，真令人不安。American whistleblower and former surveillance contractor Edward Snowden, who in 2013 leaked a massive cache of material illicitly obtained from the National Security Agency (NSA), was also critical of the tests.美国泄密者、前监控承包商爱德华·斯诺登也对这些测试提出了批评。2013年，斯诺登泄露了大量从美国国家安全局非法获得的材料。“They always tell us the tools of mass surveillance are intended for use only against the faraway Other; the foreign enemy, the terrorist, the criminal,” Snowden said in a tweet. “And then, just a few years later, we realize precisely the same system secretly surrounds us at home.”“他们总是告诉我们，大规模监控的工具只针对遥远的其他目标；外国敌人，恐怖分子，罪犯，”斯诺登在推特上说道。“然后，仅仅几年之后，我们就意识到，同样的系统恰恰也在我们身边悄悄存在。”

▲Pentagon testing ‘spy balloons’ across Midwest for ‘persistent’ domestic surveillance (via RT)

爱荷华州住宅区（图 via Alamy）

整合：Du Qiongfang

资料：The Guardian, Newsweek, RT

图/题图：AFP, Getty Images, Alamy