A power system flexibly distributes power among phased array antenna
apertures of a satellite (or other type of platform). By allocating the
power provided by a power source among the apertures, if one aperture is
not providing useful coverage (due to orientation, light traffic volume,
aperture operating frequency and/or polarization, etc.), power being
supplied to that aperture may be reallocated to one or more other
apertures that are providing useful coverage. To flexibly allocate power
among the apertures, power amplifiers and attenuators associated with
each antenna element are adjusted to provide a wide range of RF output
powers with high efficiency at all output power levels. By increasing
power allocation efficiency, the size of the satellite power source may
be reduced while appropriate power is still provided.