Smart Antenna for UUV RF Communications

Pharad proposes to design and develop a novel, small, unobtrusive, power efficient, conformal, JTRS compliant RF communications antenna system for Unmanned Undersea Vehicles (UUVs) that will provide robust and high data rate line-of-sight (LOS) and satellite communication links. Our innovative technology has never before been demonstrated and will be a key enabling technology for the implementation of the US Navy UUV Master Plan. Key aspects to be considered in our investigations are the mitigation of RF signal outages due to sea-water washover, physical robustness, and stealth. Our novel UUV RF communications antenna system will feature an efficient wideband radiator that is compliant and interoperable with future JTRS radios while providing high data rate LOS (> 512 kb/s) and satellite (> 128 kb/s) links. It will be conformal in nature so that it is mechanically robust with a structure designed to be suitable for integration with a UUV that imposes certain space and power constraints, clandestine requirements and also exposes the antenna to subsea environmental conditions. We will also investigate the antenna system power consumption, gain and size trade-offs, as well as the use of appropriate techniques that can ensure a robust link will ensure guaranteed access of service.