Millimeter Wave Communications for Force Protection

It is critically important to protect our military and civilian assets from attacks by enemy forces and terrorists in today's hostile environment in various parts of the world. The U.S. Air Force and other agencies involved in force protection, anti-terrorism, and Homeland defense employ or will deploy various types of conventional and advanced devices and systems for detection of intruders in variety of operational situations. The information from the sensors and detectors must be transmitted to the command and control center effectively. The communication link must have capabilities of covertness, free from jamming, broadband, high data rate, flexibility to interface with variety of sensors and detectors, more than 1.5 Km range, small size, quick deployment, and low cost. Millimeter-wave link provides an ideal solution for such a requirement. Narrow beamwidth achievable with a small antenna makes millimeter-wave communication module small, portable, difficult for jamming, and quick to deploy. Broadband capability enables millimeter-wave link to transmit advanced high resolution imaging data at high rate. The objective of the proposed Phase II effort is to develop, demonstrate, and field test a V-band (~60 GHz) communication link capable of interfacing with various monitors, sensors, and communication modules for such applications.