At the heart of naval antenna systems
Communicate, monitor and defend!
While antenna systems on naval vessels have always played a crucial role in national defense, they are constantly evolving to keep pace with the growing complexity of military operations and the emergence of new threats. Technological innovation and the growing need for secure, efficient communications capabilities are at the heart of this transformation.
Communicate, monitor and defend: diving into the heart of naval antenna systems
Expert in the design, manufacture, installation and maintenance of antennas and radomes for air-land-sea applications for over 30 years, Ineo Defense, part of Equans France, has equipped some of the French Navy's most sensitive naval vessels, and is a historic link in the French defense system, as well as a key partner for manufacturers in the sector.
What are the challenges involved in supplying antenna systems to the naval military today?
Used to emit and/or receive electromagnetic signals, these systems play a strategic role in the military field: they enable the exchange of secure information between different players, whether on land, in the air or at sea, regardless of their location and the degree of hostility of the environment; they ensure precise, secure navigation at sea; and they detect threats to protect ship systems.
Today's environment is marked by major technological advances and a multiplication of intelligence and communication sources (satellites, radars, drones, etc.), which present both opportunities and risks for military defense systems. The increasing quality of images and videos, and the need to communicate more and more information between different players spread across the globe, require ever greater data throughput.
To meet this demand, the number of satellites is multiplying, and the latest-generation satellites are using increasingly higher frequencies to achieve unprecedented data volume and quality. The ability of antenna systems to pick up or transmit the most reliable and exhaustive information possible, and to do so instantaneously, has never been so crucial to rapid, effective intervention on the world stage.
What are the technical challenges specific to the maritime and military environment?
On military surface ships, the space available for integrating antenna systems is very limited, and environmental conditions are severe. In addition to weight issues, they have to withstand a wide range of stresses, such as hail, frost, snow, sand, constant humidity, salt fog, extreme winds and temperatures, heavy seas, or even shocks to withstand a nearby explosion or nuclear blast, for example.
At the same time, to keep pace with exponential communication needs, antenna systems are tending towards greater flexibility, and are constantly being optimized so as to be able to work in several frequency bands simultaneously, while minimizing interference from one band to another. This is a decisive challenge for the defense sector, and DITB* companies are tackling it with multifrequency parabolic antenna solutions, covering a wide frequency spectrum from 3 GHz to 31 GHz (C-band to Ka-band). Precise dimensioning of these antenna components, to guarantee their performance and mechanical resistance to environmental conditions, without increasing their weight, requires in-depth expertise in both mechanics and microwave frequencies.
With this in mind, but also to facilitate deployment and maintenance, our experts have developed parabolas** that can be made of carbon and/or split into several petals, easily assembled and dismantled. Faced with these challenges, the radomes covering the antennas - the design, manufacture and electromagnetic qualification of which is one of Ineo Defense's strengths - are key to protecting the less robust antenna from the various aggressions mentioned above, and can also add ballistic protection (shielding).
Our experts keep a constant watch on new composite materials, characterizing and selecting them so as to be able to manufacture antennas and radomes that are both lightweight and robust, while optimizing their electromagnetic performance. Over the past 30 years, our employees have manufactured several hundred custom-made military and civilian antennas and radomes for air-land-sea applications worldwide
What are the prospects?
At a time when potential threats are multiplying and technologies are evolving, antenna systems are more than ever the guarantors of National Defense, at the forefront of technology. In the years to come, they will continue to advance to support ever-higher data rates, integrate cutting-edge technologies, and grow in flexibility and resilience. On the industrial front, the need to integrate several frequency bands into a single antenna system, while keeping weight to a minimum, calls for new manufacturing technologies.
Whereas machining parts used to be the norm, the increasing frequency of antennas calls for new tailor-made manufacturing processes, with increasingly sophisticated, lightweight, compact and one-piece parts that cannot be produced using traditional techniques. By way of illustration, the precision required to manufacture certain antenna components is now approaching the micron. Additive manufacturing makes it possible to manufacture several antenna components in a single block, thus avoiding assembly inaccuracies and reducing overall weight.
The innovation also has the advantage of producing parts that are less costly and bulky, lighter and more precise, while benefiting from reduced manufacturing lead times. Another key issue for the future of the industry revolves around the availability of these systems, which must be adapted to the mission profiles of each ship. In this context, at Ineo Defense, we carry out studies on operational safety and integrated logistical support, enabling us to define maintenance policies that optimize overall costs while guaranteeing system availability. It is important to have the means to intervene throughout the product life cycle, from design to maintenance in operational conditions, right through to the dismantling phase.