Phased array performance characteristics and compliance with SATCOM military standards

The initiative to reduce military platform signature has encouraged the consideration of phased arrays as viable alternatives to traditional reflector-based communication antennas. Phased arrays enhance a military platform's mission effectiveness not only by providing reduced radar cross section (RCS) relative to reflector-based implementations, but also by adding increased flexibility via simultaneous multi-beam operation, increased mean time between failure (MTBF), and increased operational availability resulting from graceful degradation. This paper discusses phased array antenna principles with respect to military communication system applications. Specifically, consideration of phased array antenna performance parameters as they relate to existing governing standards for satellite communications is explored. These standards implicitly assume a scan invariant reflector-based implementation. Examples of scan dependent phased array antenna performance parameters include antenna gain, sidelobes, cross-polarization isolation and instantaneous bandwidth. Performance versus implementation complexity with respect to these parameters is discussed.