  This paper analyzes how hierarchical bases preconditioners constructed for
the Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE) can be effectively applied to the
Combined Field Integral Equation (CFIE). For the case where no hierarchical
solenoidal basis is available (e.g., on unstructured meshes), a new scheme is
proposed: the CFIE is implicitly preconditioned on the solenoidal Helmholtz
subspace by using a Helmholtz projector, while a hierarchical non-solenoidal
basis is used for the non-solenoidal Helmholtz subspace. This results in a
well-conditioned system. Numerical results corroborate the presented theory.
