Spectrum Monitoring Payload for ScanEagle Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Navy SBIR FY2014.2 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2014.2 Topic No.: N142-114 Topic Title: Spectrum Monitoring Payload for ScanEagle Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Proposal No.: N142-114-0806 Firm: Applied Signals Intelligence 11501 Sunset Hills Rd., Suite 300 Reston, Virginia 20190-4740 Contact: Timothy Miller Phone: (571) 313-0681 Web Site: www.asigint.com Abstract: ASI will leverage its recent work in small form factor HF, VHF and UHF RF direction finding to accelerate and risk reduce Navy's Spectrum Monitoring payload. In this Phase I SBIR, ASI will deliver analysis and system descriptions for the antenna subsystem and its calibration, the RF and digital processing subsystems and ScanEagle integration. For the antenna subsystem, ASI will leverage its RF propagation and antenna design know-how to complete: an analysis of suitable antennas, including computer simulation results from 100MHz to 18 GHz of the antennas positioned on a CAD model of ScanEagle; antenna selection for the Phase II development based on that analysis; and, a detailed calibration strategy to deliver accurate spectrum measurements over 360 degrees of azimuthal angle from the antenna subsystem. For the RF and digital processing electronics subsystems, ASI will complete a survey of new, commercially available, small form factor spectrum analyzers and front ends. These will be compared with ASI's recent developments using COTS processors and ADC cards with custom RF front ends. Component selection and system description based on the survey and analysis will be delivered. ASI will develop a product definition that ensures integration with meteorological functions, LIDAR payloads and ScanEagle. Benefits: Airborne RF sensing depends on antennas that can be integrated into aircraft and calibrated for predictable and accurate performance. The objective of this proposed SBIR is to develop an RF sensing solution that includes antennas and RF and digital processing from 100MHz to 10 GHz and possibly up to 18 GHz, for ScanEagle. In related work, ASI has developed and demonstrated, and is now commercializing, electrically small antennas and processing that enable sensing of HF, VHF and UHF frequencies from small UAVs. Traditional antennas for these bands are 1/4 wavelength long. At VHF (100MHz) and HF (10MHz) frequencies, typical antennas are 2ft and 20ft. These sizes are challenging to integrate into aircraft and payload structures, particularly for small and/or expendable UAS. The combination of the work in this SBIR, developing higher frequency antenna, RF and digital processing subsystems for small UAVs, together with ASI's related work developing HF, VHF and UHF systems, enable small UAVs to sense a significant portion of the RF spectrum. This is impactful because of the increasing challenge of RF sensing in Anti-Access/Area Denied (A2AD) and Contested Spectrum (CS) environments. In these environments, Foreign Integrated Air Defense Systems (IADS) illuminate the same airspace with multiple, networked, radars, operating at different frequencies, to search, track and acquire targets. These IADS operate through the RF spectrum, from HF, VHF and UHF up to L, X, K bands and beyond. Different bands contribute different functions to the overall IADS. The ability to sense the RF spectrum to detect, identify and locate hostile RF radar emitters across their full range of operation, using low cost UAVs, provides valuable information for breaking the signal chain of networked IADS and is an ultimate goal of ASI. Return