An Ultra-Wideband Antenna Built Into a Parachute

"On the modern electronic battlefield, a weapon that disables the enemy's electronics can be more useful than a weapon that executes a killing strike. This is possible because a radio frequency (RF) weapon that attacks electronics can be effective over amuch larger radius than a high-explosive (HE) weapon. For example, a single 155-mm artillery shell has a disabling blast radius limited to a few meters for armored vehicles, while an RF weapon detonated at 500 meters above the battlefield can have aneffective radius in excess of 100 meters. Until recently, it was not feasible to incorporate RF weapons into munitions, due to the large size of the available sources and antennas. But compact sources are becoming available, and a compact antenna can bederived from the Collapsible Impulse Radiating Antenna (CIRA), which is an umbrella-like antenna that is already being sold commercially by Farr Research. The antenna must satisfy requirements for radiating a broad band of frequencies, and it must be smallenough to fit within a typical munition. The proposed antenna design is a combination of a parachute and an Impulse Radiating Antenna, and it is called a Para-IRA. With this antenna, and in combination with a compact Marx generator, one can deploy an RFweapon from a height of 500 meters and radiate a sufficiently high field on the ground to cause electronic upset over a radius of 100 meters. The purpose of this project is to investigate the