VHF/UHF Emitter location from micro Unmanned Aerial Systems

The US Army has a need for a radio transmitter location system that can be deployed in a tactical situation to enable the detection and geolocation of VHF/UHF handheld transceivers in real time. Use of conventional radio direction finding (DF) approaches to cover the two decades in frequency required by the solicitation (VHF+UHF) will necessitate four conventional arrays, for a total of approximately 20 antennas. This number of antennas and peripheral equipment necessary to their implementation would constitute a payload too large and heavy for most UAV platforms, including those named in this solicitation. Over the past five years QUASAR Federal Systems (QFS) has pioneered a new approach to RF transmitter geolocation with which it is possible to geolocate the source of the transmission in a single measurement with an accuracy comparable to that of conventional methods. QFS has extensive experience mounting its custom systems into a variety of airborne platforms, including a small UAS. Phase I of this program will consist of defining the specifications for system components and, in the option, conducting a risk assessment. In Phase II, we will develop and build a prototype and mount it on a UAS.