Euronaval notes, #2

Noted:

• 'unmanned' is everywhere... but how long before 'uncrewed' starts to enjoy wider use? (Or am I 'unscrewed'?) Nasa mentions 'uncrewed aerial systems' here. (Google hit counts for 'uncrewed aerial systems' vs 'unmanned aerial systems' was, as of 04/11/2014: 80k vs 362k)
• Jane's (e.g. IHS Jane's 360) is probably the only English-mother-tongue military publication to use 'antennae' as the plural form of 'antenna'. See 'radar antennae' and 'UHF SATCOM antennae' here
• Google ngram for UAV, UAS, PRCA from 1960 to 2014 here (but the acronyms may have non-military uses...)
• significant improvement in English-language documents and translations displayed by Nexter (compare French-language site and English equivalent), 

Euronaval note: Guerre des mines vs MCM

Wikipédia defines guerre des mines as follows:

En combat naval, la guerre des mines désigne toutes les opérations et tactiques relatives aux mines sous marines : le mouillage de mines, la lutte contre les mines (dragage et chasse aux mines), et les contre-mesures préventives.

The FAS (Federation of American Scientists) site has an article on mine warfare here.

Some observation made at Euronaval 2014:

• [First, an aside: No stands that I noticed boasted anyone's capabilities in mine technology. Only bad guys use mines. The good guy's job is confined strictly to mine countermeasures and the like.] 
• Most French-language journalists specialising in defence do not use guerre des mines in the sense given above. Oddly, given the way that they skirt around mines and mine laying, most use guerre des mines to mean lutte anti-mines.
  See, for example: Guerre des mines : les systèmes de drones font leurs preuves,
  Guerre des mines : Atlas Elektronik et iXBlue dans le consortium EURO-MCM
• In such cases the best equivalents are 'mine countermeasures', 'mine countermeasures (MCM)', anti-mine warfare, or just MCM, depending on the context.
• Non-specialist French-language journalists are more likely to use guerre des mines as defined by Wikipédia in which case the best equivalent is 'mine warfare'.

Conclusion for translators and translation buyers: It pays to specialise and it pays to pay attention at trade shows.

Swimming terminology

Swimmers also use everyday words in special ways or with special connotations. Specialist terminology: it's everywhere! Here are just a few links:

• Swim Smooth's illustrated glossary of swimming terms.
• US swimming glossary.
• Dictionnaire de la natation.
• 10 words that have a completely different meaning to swimmers by S6 classified disabled swimmer Claire Forrest.

Portuguese age-group co-champions Steve Dyson and Tony Bessone Basto

DID, Cheap Bulk Translations

From DID, FRI OCT 31, 2014, under the subheading Cheap Bulk Translation:

• DARPA wants to hear from organizations who can help lower the cost of automating the translation of less common languages. The fictional Klingon is available through Google and Bing, but many of the earth's 7,000+ languages are not, which by itself is a statement about Western priorities. DARPA shook their infamous acronym generator until it spat out Low Resource Languages for Emergent Incidents (LORELEI). Here's the Broad Agency Announcement [FBO], there's a Proposer's Day on November 13 in Arlington, VA.
• Since Western countries, from the US to Sweden [The Local], cannot be bothered to properly handle visas for Afghan translators threatened by the Taliban, let's hope DARPA figures LORELEI out by the next conflict in faraway places. This gets even the reliably liberal British comedian John Oliver righteously angry [video] at the US government.

Euronaval notes, #1

Just back from a week at the Euronaval naval defence show in Paris. Here are some notes and observations of passing relevance (or note) to this blog.

• English-language terms of note (and listed for more detailed analysis on this blog) include:

• autonomy & autonomous

• DCNS's 'autonomy boosting sections' (also the video here) is a good example of the problem posed by the word 'autonomy'.

• mine warfare & MCM. See my post here.

• UAV, UAS, RPCA and a host of related terms and acronyms. See my post here.

Interesting, for a technical writer and translator, to observe that:

• while I didn't notice any 'howlers' like those observed at Euronaval and Paris Air Show events a couple of decades or more ago, it is still surprising to see how many signs, slogans, web sites, videos, brochures and more still use wobbly or plodding English.... and often by the biggest and best funded companies too
• the verb 'prep' (from 'prepare') is increasingly popular with English-language defence industry journalists
• iXBlue, a spectacular rising star in the French defence and high tech sectors, boasts, in addition to cutting-edge technologies, products and marketing:

• arguably best-in-industry English-language web site and product documentation
• a management team that includes (and this is rare indeed among French defence contractors) foreign-trained and English-speaking executives who, I suspect, keep a close eye on the just-mentioned web site and product documentation. 

Love DID's humo(u)r

Defense Industry Daily, or DID, stands head and shoulders above the competition when it comes to humo(u)r. I don't intend to quote DID often, but thought I might give just one short taste:

Tailhooked (Not in Vegas)

An F-35C made its 1st arrested landing, aboard USS Nimitz (CVN 68).

If you got the joke, that's great. If you didn't, perhaps the video will help, at least with the navy interpretation of 'tailhooked'. If it's the meaning that might be associated with the term in Las Vegas, then see what the online slang dictionary has to say here.

A revolution in defence marketing?

Article: Eurofighter turns to social media with Indonesia pitch, FT, 4 November 2014 by Ben Bland and Peggy Hollinger.

Quote:

Many defence companies focus their lobbying on governments but ... Eurofighter hopes to jump ahead of its rivals by taking its sales pitch straight to the young, social-media savvy population.

Comment 1: Amazing!

Comment 2: If this takes off it could have significant impact on the importance of pithy, punchy slogans and messages by defence contractors aimed at a completely new public.