ACES Publication Search

The motivation of this study is to define the best placement for the Blue Force Tracker (BFT) satellite communications (SATCOM) antenna on a CH-53E heavy lift helicopter. When an antenna is chosen for a specific application, careful analysis of its placement must first be conducted to ensure desired performance. Platform mounted performance often deviates significantly from free space performance. The analysis was performed purely through a Computational Electromagnetics (CEM) modeling and analysis approach, rather than traditional field measurements. This resulted in lower cost and higher flexibility. The BFT antenna was built and refined in WIPL-D, a Method-of-Moments (MoM) antenna analysis software. Free space performance was determined and compared to field measurements. The CH-53E model was taken from a CATIA, a Computer Aided Design (CAD) software, imported into GID, a CAD and meshing commercial software. It was then refined and meshed at the operating frequency and was imported into WIPL-D via an internally prepared MATLAB script. Three locations were examined in detail. Other locations were considered but quickly dismissed due to mechanical, presence of pre-existing antennas, or high blockage problems. The location with the best performance was the one where the antenna was placed at fuselage station (FS) 660.5, and buttock line (BL) 16L.