Low-Cost Phased Array Antenna for Sounding Rockets, Missiles, and Expendable Launch Vehicles

A low-cost beamformer phased array antenna has been developed for expendable launch vehicles, rockets, and missiles. It utilizes a conformal array antenna of ring or individual radiators (design varies depending on application) that is designed to be fed by the recently developed hybrid electrical/ mechanical (vendor-supplied) phased array beamformer. The combination of these new array antennas and the hybrid beamformer results in a conformal phased array antenna that has significantly higher gain than traditional “omni” antennas, and costs an order of magnitude or more less than traditional phased array designs.