Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have several mission critical applications, and they are the backbone of the global air traffic system. Most of air traffic now relies upon navigation systems on board aircraft during cruise with support from Ground Based Augmentation Systems (GBAS) during the landing phases, whereas civilian and military drones rely entirely upon GNSS signals for guidance and navigation. These systems, also referred to as GLS (GBAS Landing Systems) are currently replacing the previous Instrument Landing System (ILS) in airports worldwide.
Since the navigation signals comes from satellites at very high altitude, GNSS relies on very weak signals that are extremely vulnerable, not only due to natural interference. They are also vulnerable to spoofing and jamming attacks which are defined as the deliberate or accidental transmission of radio signals that interfere with regular communications.
In fact, vulnerability to radio interference and multipath is a well-known drawback of satellite-based navigation systems. This is widely accepted as a critical issue for safety critical applications such as precision approach operations in aviation. Interference and multipath signals initially enter the navigation receiver through the antenna which, in order to minimize such signals, can be used as a spatial- and frequency-domain filter provided that selected critical antenna parameters are controlled.
PALADIN addresses the above threats by proposing an innovative gaseous Smart Plasma Antenna (SPA) for GNSS-based location estimation which is jamming and spoofing resistant. The SPA uses directional multi-lobes to simultaneously, track up to 4 satellites (potentially extendible to 12). The SPA will also provide wide-angle scanning and be electronically reconfigurable. The SPA is to be mounted on board aircraft or UAV wings, as well as at the airport site replacing GBAS reference antennas on ground. These features provide for secure GNSS aircraft navigation in all phases of flight: en-route, terminal/initial-approach and surface navigation operations.
The SME Instrument phase 1 PALADIN project has the following high-level objectives:
1) Assessment of technology feasibility and the preliminary design of the PALADIN plasma antenna;
2) Analysis of main issues related to the industrialization process;
3) Economic feasibility analysis.
