Printable Radar Absorbent Materials/Structures for Soldier Uniforms & Other Army Textiles

Portable Advanced Battlefield and Ground surveillance radar can now provide effective detection of small targets, posing challenges for troop movement and stealth missions. Radar absorbent strategies have been achieved in composites and larger textile objects, but effective light-weight solutions for current operational clothing and individual equipment systems such as uniforms, knapsacks and body armor are currently lacking. Literature has identified candidate radar absorbing materials, but these have been demonstrated primarily for composites, shielding, and/or non-Army relevant textiles. Real-world solutions must work with diverse Army-relevant textiles. Luna proposes printing thin, lightweight, radar-absorbing patterns, ensuring effective absorption in real-world conditions for current operational clothing and individual equipment systems with minimal additional manufacturing costs. For the Phase I program Luna will combine modeling and simulation, material synthesis, and radar cross-section/absorption testing, with the primary goal of demonstrating feasibility via absorption across the X-Ku band.