UP	Paper 1356	US-T-W	DOWN
Lightweight Agile Beam Antennas for UAVs
Williams,Wyman		EMS Technologies, Inc.
Burton,Chris		EMS Technologies, Inc.
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 subsystem 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.
Wyman L. Williams, Ph.D. Vice President and Chief Engineer Defense & Space Systems EMS Technologies, Inc. Ph.D., California Institute of Technology, 1989 S.M., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1982 B.S.E.E., Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, 1980 Dr. Williams' professional experience includes work as a design engineer at AT&T Bell Laboratories and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and as Vice President of Engineering at MetriWave, Inc. He joined EMS Technologies in 1991. His work at EMS has included systems engineering for the MILSTAR spaccraft's MDR adaptive nulling antenna beam former as well as the design of numerous microwave control components and subsystems. He has served as Director of Engineering and is currently Vice President and Chief Engineer of the Defense & Space Systems Group. Chris Burton Senior Engineer Defense & Space Systems EMS Technologies, Inc. M.S.E.E., Georgia Institute of Technology, 1997 B.S.E.E., Tennessee Technological University, 1996 Mr. Burton joined EMS in 1997 as a microwave design engineer. His professional experience includes the design of ferrite-based microwave control subsystems, solid-state power amplifiers (space and military), terrestrial wireless point-to-multipoint digital communications systems and analog cellular telephone base stations.