Conformal Antenna for Application to Jamming of IEDs

The proposed program addresses the need for conformal and wideband antennas for ground and air vehicles primarily for support of J-CREW applications. FIRST RF has developed and produced a very novel wideband antenna that has been fielded on US Army, US Navy, and US Marines vehicles. The proposed program leverages this technology with three ongoing areas of research at FIRST RF: efficient wideband antennas, low-loss metamaterials, and innovative antenna integration strategies. Our proposed product is a conformal and wideband antenna that maintains impedance and pattern bandwidth despite placement near the vehicle body. The antenna can be integrated into a number of concealed and conformal locations around the body of a ground vehicle or airborne platform to conceal the mission of the vehicle. The capstone of this program will be testing at a local outdoor test facility aboard an actual HMMWV or full scale model of an MRAP to characterize the installed performance of the antenna. BENEFIT: The near term benefits of the technology are primarily for military ground vehicles supporting EW operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Long term benefits include concealed antennas for Special Operations and Intelligence Operations vehicles, wideband airborne antennas and Homeland defense and security.