This paper focuses on the interaction and integration of several critical components of a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) using smart antenna systems. A MANET is a wireless network where the communicating nodes are mobile and the network topology is continuously changing. One of the central motivations for this work comes from the observed dependence of the overall network throughput on the design of the adaptive antenna system and its underlying signal processing algorithms. In fact, a major objective of this work is to study and document the overall efficiency of the network in terms of the antenna pattern and the length of the training sequence used by the beamforming algorithms. Furthermore, the paper also considers problems dealing with: the choice of direction of arrival algorithm; the performance of the adaptive beamformer in the presence of antenna coupling effects; combating the effects of fading channels on the overall system.