Iridium/GPS Anti-Jam Antenna System (iGAAS)

GPS is extremely vulnerable to signal interference, both unintentional and deliberate. Military navigation systems for air and sea vehicles require reliable GPS performance and the use of Iridium signals to provide an alternate robust worldwide navigation and communications capability. Some type of jamming signal mitigation technique is needed beyond conventional filter methods since these interference signals are in the GPS/Iridium bands and therefore cannot be removed with traditional in-band filtering. Consequently, a cancellation method that preserves the GPS/Iridium signals while eliminating the undesired interference is needed. Antenna nulling methods are a common solution for mitigating jammer signals from GPS, however many existing air and sea vehicles have limited space and power requirements that do not allow for traditional antenna nulling/beam-steering anti-jam solutions that require large antenna arrays and antenna electronics of considerable power and size. Mayflower proposes to leverage its SAS AJ technology with added Iridium capabilities and integrate the antenna nulling electronics into a 4-inch diameter multi-element array with Iridium support. The proposed Mayflower iGAAS system will be a common solution for air and sea vehicles that will provide simultaneous GPS reception and Iridium transmit/receive capability, as well as simultaneous nulling protection of the GPS and Iridium bands.