The use of military antennas has redefined how modern warfare is fought. With the ability to gather intelligence on the ground and relay the same to decision makers in the war centers, a lot of soldier and civilian life have been saved. Ideally, these equipments are mostly made of tough materials to help withstand the tough war conditions.

To date there are about four categories of armed forces antennas. These include airborne, sea bond, hand held and ground based transceivers. The airborne antennas are predominately used in armed forces aircrafts. The sea bond transmitters are used in battleships, submarines and boats; handheld antennas are used by individual soldiers, while ground based transceiver find use in armed forces bases, vehicles and war centers.

Typically, these equipments are mainly used for direction finding, intelligence gathering and electronic attack. In electronic attacks, these installations are responsible for jamming enemy signals; these can be useful in stopping remotely controlled bombs from detonating. In intelligence gathering, the antenna typically is used to survey and relay info to be used in decision making.

Common types of military antennas include directional, antenna arrays and omnidirectional. Directional antennas have maximum gain in a specific angle while the omnidirectional ones have almost equal gain in all angles of horizontal plane. Antenna arrays on the other hand are simply a series or compilation of antennas; they could be either omnidirectional or directional.

The ultra wide banded transceivers also referred to as ultra broad banded antennas are particularly advantageous in information warfare and tactical communication. With their ability to transmit and receive data over a wide range of narrowband frequencies, relay of data is very effective even over thousands of miles. Using this technology, generals have been able to communicate with troops that are in some of the most remote areas in the world.

Typically, most armed forces antennas are manufacture by army divisions that specialize in this field such as a signal squadron. There are also a number of civilian firms that are actively involved with the armed forces in the designing, testing and manufacture of such equipments. Some even sell their products to the civilian population.

Though most military antennas are very versatile and can adapt to most communication needs, there sometimes is need to custom make for a specific use. Based on the desired qualities; most contractors involved in this field can custom make an antenna for the military or even individual persons. To date, just a handful of military contractors and squadrons can pull this.

Commonly, civilians may use these armed forces installations in controlling floodlights, CCTV, emergency lighting, work involving survey and triangulation etc. The law enforcement agencies also make a lot of use in these installations. In some countries, police work is so interrelated with the army such that the use of these equipments is common place with law enforcement agents.

In a recap, a military antenna is simply an armed forces installation used to send and receive information from one point to the other. Also useful within the civilian population these equipments have really redefined how wars are fought. When purchasing one, always insisting on something that is either ISO or armed forces certified is generally wise.