Performance analysis of conformal conical arrays for airborne vehicles

Abstract

Conformal array apertures have great potential for providing high performance, low weight systems with little or no impact to the aerodynamic design of the air vehicle. A performance analysis of conformal conical arrays for a national airborne radar application is presented. The conical array geometry is chosen for its similarity to an aircraft or missile nosecone. Performance capabilities are analyzed for a number of antenna performance parameters including scan volume, sidelobe levels, grating lobes, beamwidth, directivity, element count, and cross-polarization