Embedded Co-Located Antenna Elements to Increase Pattern Coverage and Effectively Mitigating Interference for Improved Communications

The future net-centric military provides enhanced battlefield awareness through wireless links between unmanned aerial vehicles, high-speed aircraft, rotary-winged platforms, and soldiers on the ground. To support this, platforms must accommodate a variety of antennas, not to mention traditional payloads such as sensors, fuel, weapons, and personnel. The integration of antennas on rotary-winged platforms is particularly challenging since performance can be greatly impacted depending on mounting location. The ideal mounting locations are thus over-crowded with antennas that pose a cosite and blockage problems. This dictates the need for a wideband efficient antenna that can operate over various frequency bands and waveforms while sharing a single mounting location. These frequency bands and waveforms include SINCGARS 30-88 MHz, VHF AM / ATC 116-174 MHz, UHF-AM / HAVEQUICK 225-400 MHz, Public Safety 450-512 MHz, and WNW / SRW 1200-2500 MHz. FIRST RF, a leader in multi-band and wideband antennas, is leveraging embedded co-located apertures and integrated filtering to provide a unique multi element multi-band solution housed in a proven radome. This solution improves installed performance as well as reducing signature such as RADAR Cross Section.