Lightweight Agile Beam Antennas for UAVS

Military network-centric mobile communications systems to be fielded in the near future will make extensive use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for communications relay. The high data rates and sophisticated networking waveforms to be used in these systems often require a high-gain agile beam antenna subsystem to meet throughput requirements. An antenna subsystem with the required capabilities-that is compatible with the size, weight, power and cost constraints of a UAV-thus becomes an enabling technology for these future systems. This paper presents implementation and experimental evaluation of a Ku-band switched-beam tactical CDL antenna designed for the Predator UAV. Emerging technologies for further weight-reducing these antennas will also be discussed, showing a path to a 2-lb switched beam antenna to extend these capabilities to very small UAVs. Implementation and experimental evaluation data will also be presented for switched horn/lens antennas and geodesic cone antennas, which offer additional capabilities beyond the switched-beam antenna subsystem