The examples below clearly demonstrate that technical journalism has its innovators and that each innovation raises multiple issues for technical journalism translators. Question that will spring to mind for anyone translating such articles include: Should I aim to be as innovative as the original? If so, will I be understood or will I simple raise hackles?
A few may employ American expressions or US military jargon that will be more familiar, hence less innovative, to North American readers than to me
The following examples were gathered after consulting fewer than a dozen publication dates:
Puns on aircraft, project and system names, etc.
- Gripin’ in Switzerland: Referendum Shoots New Fighter Deal Down
- Lightning Rod: F-35 Fighter Family Capabilities and Controversies
- Ring My Bell: New Helicopters for Canada’s Coast Guard
- Warthogs Appear to Be Republicans
Playing with military and technical terms
- Gripin’ in Switzerland: Referendum Shoots New Fighter Deal Down
- Saudi-Financed French Arms Deliveries Hit Lebanon
- India’s Light Helicopter Contract Hits Turbulence, Stalls. Again. Starts.
Humorous
Interesting use of everyday terms in (sub)headings
- Pimp My Ride: Weapons & Accessories
- Warthogs Appear to Be Republicans
- Lithuania Entreats Germany for Still More Hardware
- UK to Top Off Bomb Stocks After 300+ ISIS Sorties | Saudi-Financed French Arms Deliveries Hit Lebanon | Blue Force Tracker Gets First Export('Top off' may be an Americanism. I would have said 'top up'.)
- Mistral Amphibious Assault Ships for Russia: Deliveries Hanging('Hanging' is odd but eye-catching.)
- THAAD: Reach Out and Touch Ballistic Missiles
- Airfields Afloat: The USA’s New Gerald Ford Class Super-Carriers
('Airfield afloat' is new to me. And clever too.) - JSTARS Replacement: Competition Opened Wide
('Opened wide' is a nice variation of 'wide open' or 'now wide open'.)
Multi-headings in the 'Rapid Fire' section using vertical seperators
- Industry Opposes Reform Bill | Germans to Dump G-36 | Japan Picks Dassault’s Falcon 2000
- Marines Developing Air-Air Tactics to Integrate F-35s with F-18s | Poland Chooses Patriots & Airbus H225M | Swiss Will Replace F-5Es
- UK to Top Off Bomb Stocks After 300+ ISIS Sorties | Saudi-Financed French Arms Deliveries Hit Lebanon | Blue Force Tracker Gets First Export
Other
- Timely Defenders: Keeping Patriots in Shape(Is the copy editor playing with 'time keeping'?)
- New-Old Nukes: GBP 350M for Final Refit of UK’s Vanguard Nuclear Missile Subs
('New-old' is clever.) - Soldier Battle JTRS: The HMS Radio Set + SANR ('Soldier battle' is a strikingly succint qualifier.)
Grammatical and punctuation quirks (presumably to attract attention)
- F-X2: Brazil Buys Gripen, Deal Raises Prosecutor Eyebrows(Why not 'prosecutor's eyebrows'?)
- Naval Air, Unmanned: The Long Deferred UCLASS Develops('Develops' is, IMHO, odd but eye-catching. It's is also more adventurous than most translators, again IMHO, would feel comfortable with.)
- Blue Force Tracker Gets First Export
(One doesn't normally 'get' a 'first export'. Presumalby this is a variant of 'win a first export contract'.) - X-47B Drone Refuels, Swarms(Two verbs separated by a comma.)
- SSBN-X Subs: Congressmen Promote Refresh, Have Sub Bases in Districts
- India’s Light Helicopter Contract Hits Turbulence, Stalls. Again. Starts.
