Antennas: Military Airborne

Pioneering R&D, plus proven performance have earned us a proud place on our nation's defense platforms. The U.S. Armed Services call on us for engineering development and system integration of new designs, as well as upgrades for existing products. We offer antennas for communication, radar, tracking and electronic warfare systems, plus navigation DME, GPS (FRPA and CRPA), IFF, telemetry, and SATCOM systems for virtually all fixed and rotary wing airborne platforms as well as electronic pods.

Our ACMI pod nosecone (SE series) products combine L1, and L1, L2 GPS functions with a variety of telemetry antennas to satisfy both air to air, as well as air to ground data links necessary for the evaluation of systems during fighter aircraft flight testing and war gaming scenarios. Program participation has included the RAJPO, LATR and JTCTS ranges as well as foreign test ranges. Highly integrated within a high temperature dielectric radome, the nosecone system can provide GPS preamplifiers, switching networks, and air data systems. Used in conjunction with an AIM 9 electronics pod, our systems have flown on F-14 through F-18 aircraft, even a Mirage 29.

Communication, both VHF and UHF, as well as IFF and TACAN functions are always required on military platforms. Our C144, CNI8, and CNI22 series dual function blades provide both these capabilities in a single, high strength antenna, that can also be supplied with integrated diplexers. Typical aircraft deployments include all U.S. fighters, transports, and trainer aircraft including both the domestic JPATS and Korean KTX1.

IFF antenna configurations are available that range from simple transponder monopole antennas to sophisticated multielement arrays that support Advanced IFF systems. Our AT741 style and Q105 antennas have been deployed on aircraft ranging from transports through the F-16, while flush antennas have been integrated into aircraft access panels, such as our Q106 on the F-16.

Numerous EW/ESM/radar antennas are available to cover both broad frequency and high power bands for many applications. Our system experience from the SR-71, B-1B, Pod mounted intercept and ground surveillance radar products includes horn and flat plate array antenna technology. This capability coupled with pioneering broadband spiral antenna technology results in many off-the-shelf products to choose from.

GPS antenna technology is a focused growth area for AIL. Our prior geodetic survey experience in FRPA antennas led to the introduction of the L1, L2 C146-13 series antennas back in 1992 for the F-14, F-18 and A-10 platforms. The excellent low angle pattern and gain performance of the basic design has been retained for high performance aircraft and the tefzel rain erosion resistant radome meet stringent naval aircraft requirements. Flush design efforts, with emphasis on low RCS performance, are underway.

Continuing this targeted growth area, multielement antijam CRPA antennas have been developed such as the N79 7 element and N100 4 element units. These antennas, when used in conjunction with antenna electronics units such as the AE1, GAS and Raytheon Pagan, enable a GPS receiver to continue reception by steering nulls at a jamming source. Preplanned product improvements include conformal mounting, reduced RCS, and frequency expansion to include M code operation.

UHF SATCOM antenna experience is quite broad, encompassing airborne dual mode antennas such as our C175 and C34 high and low angle coverage antennas used on transport and surveillance aircraft such as the C-130, C-141, P-3 and helicopters. Line-of-sight communication capability (225 to 400 MHz) is also provided in the low angle mode portion of these antennas.

Fighter aircraft antenna introductions include our flush C196 for the Tornado aircraft that offers hemispheric coverage for the UHF SATCOM band in a mechanical package of 14.25 inches square by 2.5 inches deep.

Typical antenna types include the following examples:

PRODUCT	FUNCTION
SE100 Series	ACMI GPS/Telemetry Pod Nosecone
CNI8	UHF L-Band
CNI22	UHF L-Band
C146-13	L1, L2 FRPA GPS
N79	L1, L2 7-element CRPA GPS
N100	L1, L2 4-element CRPA GPS
C34	UHF SATCOM
C175	UHF SATCOM
C196	Flush UHF SATCOM

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