A Low-Cost Consumable Radio Frequency Emitter for Adversary Threat Emulation

In modern conflicts, Electronic Warfare (EW) and signal sensing technology is becoming increasingly important to maneuver commanders in multi-domain operations. One of the challenges in integrating EW, electronic support, and direction finding into combined arms operations is the ability to simulate threat emitters, such as enemy tactical Very High Frequency (VHF) radios, in a manner that allows for integrating with live fire operations. Current simulators or commercial radios are cost prohibitive and not made for one-time use. Use of commercial radios often requires close proximity of operation. A low cost and consumable RF Threat emitter design is presented as a solution to train direction finding and electronic support in a sensor to shooter environment. An interface between a single board processor and Software Defined Radio (SDR) is developed. Battery, amplifier, and user interface is considered. Frequency Hopping, raw IQ, audio file playback, and other modulation schemes are achievable with SDR flexibility. The overall threat emitter system is tested in line of sight (LOS) environment. Received signal power is compared to multiple path loss and radio wave propagation models. The system performance and overall build cost are evaluated and shown to successfully emulate desired radio transmissions in the VHF band.