Development of ka-band satellite tracking antenna for unmanned aircraft system

Toward increased use of unmanned aircrafts (UA), researches and standardizations of the control communication system for UA using satellites in ITU-R and the like have been discussed recently. The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) has been developing an on-board tracking antenna system for UA which realizes a communication link between UA and remote pilot through satellite. The tracking on-board antenna is designed for UA and has several features such as low-profile and broadband. In this paper, we explain the results to date and background of this development.