Antenna for Shipboard Missile Detection System

A great deal of effort has been directed toward the development of millimeter-wave missile seekers because of its capability to penetrate fog, clouds, and smoke, and its ability to provide narrow beamwidth and high resolution with small antenna size. Thedevelopment effort has mostly been centered around the 35 GHz and 94 GHz low atmospheric attenuation windows. To defend a ships against missile attacks, high gain omnidirectional antennas capable of high probability of detection and direction finding areneeded.The objective of the project is to develop high-gain omni-directional shipboard missile defense system antennas for improved intercept and direction finding capabilities covering both Ka- and W-bands. The antennas will be optimized for shipboardapplications and designed for low production costs and small size for easy installation on ships. The proposed approach to the development of high gain, omnidirectional antennas is based on the two new design concepts developed in Phase I effort of theproject; cylindrical reflector and sectoral horn omnidirectional antennas which provide narrow elevation beamwidth, high gain, direction finding capabilities. The proposed omnidirectional antennas will provide enabling capabilities for the development of ship defense systems against oncoming missiles. The proposed high gain omnidirectional antennas will provide not only the high probability of detection butalso direction finding capability. High gain omnidirectional millimeter-wave antennas will have potential opportunities for wide rage of commercial and military applications. Examples are Ka-band LMDS systems, millimeter-wave local area network systems,intrusion detection, battle field communications, and anti-tank missile detection.