Multipurpose Radio Frequency Test Antenna Coupler

Maintenance of U.S. air superiority requires that current and future combat aircraft be equipped to counter an increasing diversity of aircraft and missiles. One cost-effective response to this requirement is the increasing use of both computer and hardware simulation to test the response of US radar, EW, CNI, IFF, and datalink systems to different threats and engagement scenarios. These simulations are conducted in shielded anechoic chambers and typically sue direct injection of the RF threat signal bypassing the antenna of the system under test. However, testing of advanced integrated avionics systems with conformal arrays and shared apertures requires non disruptive radiated techniques. One such technique is to install a large antenna array on the wall of the anechoic chamber to dynamically simulate targets. This approach requires hundreds of antennas and components, is very expensive and takes years to implement. There is a need for developing a non disruptive system of radiated RF coupling to augment the direct injection and wall mounted array techniques. S*R proposes to meet this requirement with a multipurpose over-the-antenna "hat" RF coupler capable of simulating dynamic angles of arrival for multiple targets and operating in a transmit or high power density receive mode.