A plasma-based anti-jamming system for satellite communication systems is to be developed under a $750,000 US Air Force contract.
Tennessee-based Haleakala Research and Development has been awarded the two-year contract to work on the system, which acts like a radome.
“It’s a plasma radome to protect a space-based antenna by deflecting incoming signals,” says Haleakala president Edward Anderson.
The plasma is inside tubes. The antenna would be at the centre of a circle of plasma tubes. The plasma tubes’ gas is energised in such a way that they reflect, or are transparent to, certain incoming signals.
Source: Flight International