RF (Radio Frequency) Communications for Unattended Ground Sensor and Munition Systems

This proposal describes our approach for the design of an UGS based small, innovative, conformal/flush antenna system covering the 225-500 MHz radio band that excites a linearly polarized wave along the earth and circularly polarized wave above approximately 10 degrees elevation angle. We will use a combination of structural (innovative shapes, sizes and helical wrapping techniques), novel nanotube loaded polymers as flexible, strong, lightweight, high dielectric loading materials to both reduce the antennas' dimensions and protect their elements. Also described is an efficient, accurate and innovative technique for both predicting 225-500 MHz link performance between UGS equipped with near-earth antennas and determining their optimum deployment density considering communications performance. Our proposed approach will adapt the recently formulated stochastic approach that is based on a "wandering photon" or random walk description of wave propagation which is capable of accurately calculating path loss using only two parameters: average obstacle density and average obstacle absorption coefficient for each UGS deployment area.