Military Antennas For Tactical Communications And Information Warfare Sigint And Direction Finding

By Author: Alan Cole
Total Articles: 4
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High performance military antennas can be used in a wide range of applications, including tactical communications and information warfare applications, such as signals intelligence (SIGINT), direction-finding (DF) and information operations (electronic attack).

Military antennas for tactical communications are used to transmit and receive signals on military platforms such as ground vehicles, aircraft, UAVs, UUVs, submarines, ships, man-portable and team-transportable. Military antennas for SIGINT are used to monitor the environment and collect signals of interest. Military antennas for direction-finding (DF) are used to determine the direction that a signal of interest is coming from, and military antennas for information operations are used for activities such as electronic attack (jamming the signal of interest).

Military antennas that are ultra broadband or ultra wideband are particularly advantageous, because they enable end-users to operate over all frequencies of interest via a single antenna. A true ultra wideband (time-nondispersive) military antenna also handles impulse type (ultrawideband) signals and ...
... thus is future proof against emerging threats. The use of an ultra wideband military antenna promotes maximum performance and efficiency in system integration, install/maintenance and upgrade. Military antennas can be directional, omnidirectional or array antennas. Directional military antennas have maximum gain in a particular angle in the azimuth plane, while omnidirectional military antennas have approximately equal gain in all angles. Military antenna arrays are composed of multiple antenna elements, typically directional, often with an omnidirectional (reference) element.

Selecting the right military antenna product for your requirements should begin by determining the radiation pattern type needed (directional, omnidirectional or array) and by specifying the maximum space available for the antenna. The maximum space available for the military antenna is typically defined as the maximum diameter and height of the cylinder into which the antenna must fit. A further factor is the weight constraint (if any).

Ultra-lightweight, rugged military antennas can be produced using the advanced manufacturing technique of selective laser sintering (SLS). SLS grows complex shapes out of a single piece of material, producing military antennas which are extremely rugged as well as lightweight, and hence are particularly advantageous for weight-sensitive platforms. High performance military antennas should require no baluns, impedance transformers, groundplanes or other peripherals.

Military antenna technology for tactical communications and information warfare should be ultra wideband, meet your requirements for radiation pattern, form factor and weight, as well as providing other performance or operational features that you may require. A quick reaction capability (QRC) for both small quantity and volume production, as well as for custom military antennas, should be a further factor in selecting the right military antenna vendor.

The author of this article has expertise in military antennas. The articles on military antennas reveals the author's knowledge on the same. The author has written many articles on military antennas as well.