The advanced multifunction RF concept

The goal of the Advanced Multifunction Radio Frequency Concept (AMRFC) Program is to demonstrate the integration of many sorts of shipboard RF functions including radar, communications, and electronic warfare (EW) utilizing a common set of broad-band array antennas, signal and data processing, signal generation, and display hardware. The AMRFC Program was launched in response to the growing number of topside antennas on U.S. Navy ships, which have almost doubled from the ships launched in the 1980s to those launched in the 1990s. The AMRFC Program seeks to develop and demonstrate a wide-band generic active array antenna architecture that has the ability to transmit and receive multiple simultaneous independent beams for radar, EW, and communication functions. This paper describes a proof-of-principle test-bed that is being developed to demonstrate the AMRFC.