An important milestone for CNIT Lab RaSS
Conformal antennas for communication systems, proposed by the applied electromagnetics group, have passed all the severe qualification tests for naval use and can therefore be mounted on board the new Multi-purpose Offshore Patrol Vessels (PPA) of the Italian Navy
CNIT RaSS Lab has reached a fundamental milestone in the development of the new generation of naval antennas. The long journey started with a project of the National Plan of Military Research, i.e., a three-year project named SHIRED (Shipboard HIghly REDuced Antennas) coordinated by Prof. Agostino Monorchio, concluded in 2015 and carried out with the active collaboration of the Microwave and Radiation laboratory at the Department of Information Engineering of the University of Pisa.
During the project, conformal miniaturized naval antennas were first designed and then their feasibility was demonstrated. These newly designed antennas were proven to be highly innovative compared to the conventional antennas that are currently aboard military ships. The degree of innovation has been much appreciated by the Italian Navy, which proposed their use on board the new Multi-purpose Offshore Patrol Vessels (PPA). The new antennas allow for a new ship design where the traditional mast with communication antennas can be removed with significant benefits. Leonardo Company has therefore commissioned CNIT-RaSS to engineer the prototypes resulting from the SHIRED project, in order to install such antennas on the modern PPA and make use of them in operational scenarios.
At the end of July 2018, the antennas have passed all the required qualification tests as well as the functional electrical radio tests conducted at the radio measurements facility of the ITE-CSSN Institute of the Italian Navy in Livorno. Leonardo has therefore approved their use for the V/UHF communication systems that will equip the new PPA ships, which are currently being built at Fincantieri’s integrated naval shipyards at Riva Trigoso and Muggiano, Italy.
Testing the UHF antenna array
