High Gain Common Data Link (CDL) Antennas for Networking UAV Nodes

Unmanned Air Vehicles (UAV) such as Fire Scout could increase its utility to the fleet by operating as a node in an airborne star network. Such a system would need to support full-two way communication with up to six other nodes for transfer and relay of data, imagery, command and control with 360 degree coverage, within a 110NM UAV slant range. This would require multiple high-speed channels. The Phase 1 base effort will concentrate on first developing a complete set of system requirements from tops down system analysis. Innovative AESA concepts will be synthesized and feasibility determined. Risk/Reward trades will be accomplished on multiple AESA approaches to select candidate approach that can meet the derived system detail requirements.