Advanced antennas for air vehicle flight test evaluation.

A low profile L-Band antenna was developed in Phase 1 that can by directly swapped out for its current commercial off-the-shelf counterpart. The new antenna, with slight additional optimization, has essentially the antenna performance (gain/pattern) as its COTS counterpart, but has significantly lower aerodynamic drag and radar cross section. In Phase 2, final optimization of the L-Band antenna design will be developed, built and tested for gain and pattern. Design optimization and fabrication of a UHF Flight Termination System antenna, for which a prototype design will be developed during the option program of Phase 1, will also be conducted in Phase 2. The same antenna design concepts will be applied to S-Band and C-Band antennas of interest to the Navy. Gain and pattern tests for the new low profile antennas as well as their COTS counterparts will be conducted to demonstrate their similarity.