Broadband Antenna Selection for Vehicle-mounted Jamming System against RCIEDs

Radio-frequency (RF) jammer is an effective response to Radio Controlled Improvised Explosive Device (RCIED) threats which nowadays have been growing significantly across the globe. RFjammer works by blocking the control of these explosive devices. Jamming (Jx) signals are transmitted in a wide frequency range (typically from 20 MHz to 6 GHz) with an adequate power to overwhelm or distort the trigger signal, and consequently to prevent the activation of RCIED. To improve the effectiveness of RCIED counter system, much research has devoted to improving Jx techniques but far less attention has been paid on an indispensable component, namely antenna. The common existing Jx antenna type is a wideband monopole mounted on top of a vehicle, reused from communication which is not optimized for the Jx purposes. This article presents the selection of a possible broadband antenna which fits for Jx application. The Jx antenna should operate effectively at an extremely wide bandwidth, usually impractical to design. Therefore, the total bandwidth has divided into two bands: low-band 20-500 MHz, and high-band 500 MHz - 6 GHz. The high band antenna is the focal point of the antenna system design because of its high sensitivity to the host platform.