Dynamically Configurable Antenna

Current shipboard antennas create a virtual "antenna farm" on the decks and superstructures of most Navy ships. A flexible solution is required to reduce the number of antennas, integrate them into the hull form and ultimately produce a single antenna capable of operations over needed frequency bands. To this end, an antenna capable of operation across multiple bands dynamically reconfigurable in bandwidth, beamwidth, gain and directionality that can be designed into any type shape or style would be highly desirable. Malibu Research's plasma antenna concepts may be a potential solution to the development of a new class of antenna architectures with the inherent features of: (a) reduced RCS, (b) flexibility, (c) "reconfigurability on the fly," and (e) conformability with the added feature of EMI/EMC mitigation. In addition they can be made low cost and light weight.