Rock West Composites (RWC) has announced the delivery of nine Ka-band and Ka/Ku-band radomes to R4 Integration, Inc. The final delivery this month completes the contract that continues work on a previous aerospace program, facilitating military search and rescue operations. The sandwich panel radomes meet multiple demanding requirements, including very low view angles, a large band of frequencies, a truncated schedule, and no tooling. The program is anticipated to have follow-on adjacent panel designs in 2026.
The contract called for radomes made of a fiberglass and foam core sandwich configuration, following the design of the original proof-of-concept. The Ka-band radomes are made of Quartz Btcy1-A/4581 and Diab foam. The Ka/Ku-band radomes are made of Toray 2510 and Diab Foam with a foam tuning layer. The exterior shapes are the same and require very low view angles of 20° relative to the horizon within several frequency ranges: 10.7-14.5 GHz, 17.7-21.2 GHz, and 27.5-31 GHz. RWC met an abbreviated schedule and used no tooling by creating a highly optimized flat panel design. The company performed in-house RF testing to verify performance to requirements.
Adam Saunders, Program Manager, said, “We are proud to support this critical program for our military and R4. This opportunity has enabled Rock West to demonstrate a key capability, successfully producing radomes for aerospace applications without the need for tooling, bringing better value and improved schedules to our customers and end users.”