AIRBORNE ANTENNA PATTERN PREDICTION PROGRAM

COMPREHENSIVE AIRBORNE TESTING OF TODAY'S COMPLEX WEAPON SYSTEMS HAS AN EXTREMELY HIGH COST TAG WHERE THE FIRING OF A LARGE NUMBER OF MISSILES IS REQUIRED TO ASSESS VULNERABILITY AND EVALUATE EFFECTIVENESS OVER THE ENTIRE OPERATIONAL ENVELOPE AND IN AN ECM ENVIRONMENT. TO MAKE VERY HIGH COST MISSILE COUNT, COMPLEX VECTOR SCORING SYSTEMS ARE REQUIRED WITH KNOWN PERFORMANCE ACCURACIES OVER THEIR ENTIRE SPHERICAL SCORING ENVELOPE. THESE AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEMS ARE REQUIRED TO DETECT, TRACK, AND MEASURE THE CLOSEST APPROACH OF MISSILES FROM ANY DIRECTION THUS REQUIRING A MULTIPLE ANTENNA SYSTEM WITH KNOWN COVERAGE AND PREFERABLY WITHOUT VOIDS. THE FREE-SPACE RADIATION PATTERNS OF ANTENNA ELEMENTS ARE HIGHLY DISTORTED BY REFLECTION AND DIFFRACTION ON COMPLEX AIRBORNE VEHICLES. CUT-AND-DRY ANTENNA ELEMENT DESIGN AND LOCATION ON SUCH STRUCTURES FOLLOWED BY TESTS ARE TIME CONSUMING AND COSTLY. THIS PROPOSED EFFORT WILL DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING STATE-OF-THE-ART ANTENNA RADIATION PATTERN COMPUTER PREDICTION TECHNIQUES FOR COMPLEX STRUCTURES TO THE REQUIREMENTS OF COMPUTER SIMULATION TESTING OF AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTATION SYSTEMS, SUCH AS THE MULTIPLE ANTENNA VECTOR SCORING SYSTEMS. PHASE I WILL DEMONSTRATE FEASIBILITY OF ADAPTING COMPUTER PATTERN PREDICTION TECHNIQUES TO THE MULTIPLE ANTENNA SYSTEM ON TARGET VEHICLES. PHASE II WILL INTEGRATE THE PREDICTION TECHNIQUES WITH A COMPUTER SIMULATION AIRBORNE TEST SYSTEM.