Unmanned: aircraft gain greater acuity.

• Author: Williams, Robert H.
• Position: Tech Talk - Brief Article

Recent advances in technology will permit highly sensitive antennas to be embedded on aircraft wings. This could lead to the detection of moving targets beneath dense foliage and air-to-air missile threats while cutting airframe weight and costs.

Northrop Grumman Corp., El Segundo, Calif., and the Air Force Research Laboratory have partnered in the five-year, $12 million project, called the Low-Band Structural Array (LOBSTAR) program.

Conformal load-bearing antenna structure technology, said Allen Lockyer, LOBSTAR program manager, "converts otherwise passive structures, such as a wing, into a system element that increases avionics performance."

Potential...