Rugged, Low-Cost, Nondielectric Missile Radome

Missiles will soon have the capability of traveling at higher speeds and over longer ranges than previously possible, resulting in uniquely demanding radome requirements. As seeker technology has been evolving to higher frequencies from X-band through W-band, traditional dielectric radome designs have struggled to meet the evolving requirements in electrical performance and environmental survivability while remaining affordable and easy to manufacture. Though electrically suitable, sandwiched radomes require costly processes with manufacturing tolerances becoming progressively more demanding with increases in frequencies used by RF systems. Alternate radome designs are desired that can be manufactured and characterized using simple materials and processes. A novel radome is proposed that uses a combination of conductors and dielectrics. The use of metal radomes with slots and holes are of particular interest as simple machining and filling of holes in a metallic aerodynamic dome will provide a very simple, producible, low loss, rugged design. The design is based on thick wall FSS technology that has been applied to radomes in the past. Modern numerical analysis allows efficient optimization of the design.