Conformal X-Bank Seeker for Semiactivee Guided Projectile

This SBIR Phase I proposal is for the development of a conformal X-band antenna for an interferometric semi-active seeker for a 5 inch projectile. A seeker design based on interferometry is proposed because conventional seekers are difficult to implementon projectiles where high g forces at launch and body shape constraints make gimbals and radomes impractical. Conventional conformal antenna accuracies are susceptible to degradation when the target is off-axis.Interferometry offers more consistent off-axis performance and less sensitivity to antenna variations. The interferometric seeker can be implemented on both spinning and non-spinning projectiles and imposes no timing or special antenna requirements on theilluminator. Interferometry allows a variety of configurations and projectileinstallation options.The objectives of the proposed effort are to evaluate alternative interferometric antenna configurations,select that with the best performance/cost benefit and to validate its predicted performance by constructing and testing a laboratory prototype.Several configurations are discussed and described including conformal