Missile Aft Antenna with Extended Capability

Vadum will design and prototype a compact dual-band Missile Aft Antenna (MAA) that employs an innovative combination of metasurface current steering, ground plane dual-use, and spatial diversity to deliver both S- and X-band extended range tactical communications performance for a ballistic missile interceptor. Missile antennas must enable all-aspect coverage from often suboptimal mounting locations; the Vadum approach utilizes a rigorous link budget analysis and electromagnetic simulation to achieve circular polarization with gain and wide aspect coverage in the harsh endo- and exo-atmospheric vehicle environment. Insertion of MAAs on a KV will in-fill low-coverage solid angles and deliver all-aspect coverage over an estimated 2X communications range. Antennas integrated onto the missile aft bulkhead will not interfere with keep-out zones in the interstage or the thrusters. Vadum will deliver an antenna design and physical Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 5/6 prototypes for government ground-based evaluation of uplink and downlink performance. Approved for Public Release | 20-MDA-10643 (3 Dec 20)