Source Agnostic Frequency Excluding (SAFE) Antenna System

The Navy needs a high power microwave (HPM) directed energy weapon (DEW) capable of stopping vehicle and vessel engines from a range of up to 250 m. Current broadband RF-HPM weapon systems are very large, heavy, and costly. Additionally, their indiscriminately broadband signals prohibit their use in many operational areas where other radar or communications are already in use. The Navy needs a smaller, lighter and lower cost broadband HPM antenna system with capability to avoid key friendly frequencies. During the Phase I, PSI showed the feasibility of fabricating an antenna system that is SWAP-C minimized, wideband, and highly directional. The key innovation is extremely compact and broadband antenna elements with  frequency carve-outs inherent in their physical resonating structures. The designed system is capable of inducing an electric field that meets the minimum requirement for damaging electronics on commercial vehicles and does so across a 1-3 GHz frequency band. In the Phase II period, PSI will build a prototype of the system for testing on military vehicles and vessels at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Dahlgren Division. Once the Phase II prototypes have been evaluated by the Navy, PSI will pursue strategies to produce the developed system at production levels.