SBIR-STTR Award

Long wavelength ground-based multistatic radar systems which may be in the hf, vhf, or uhf bands offer potential solutions to the problems associated with performing the tactical army mission of foreward area air defense (FAAD) and weapons location with monostatic short wavelength radars. However, significant problems are also introduced with the use of these long wavelength bistatic radar systems. The problems introduced are primarily in the category of increased jammer susceptibility and the introduction of multiple directive narrow band interference sources. System concepts coupled with appropriately specialized spatial adaptive nulling techniques, proposed to be further developed during the phase i program, are designed to overcome the problems associated with the use of the subject bistatic long wavelength radar systems so that their advantages can be realized in technically feasible system designs. A phase ii program based on the validation and further development of the developed designs by simulation experiments makes use of digitally recorded multiple channel front-end-of-the-radar field test data as program inputs.

The Phase II program subject includes the design, development, simulation and field testing of the conversion to a fully adaptive beam space receiver system of the Army's planned development of a bistatic weapons location radar system which includes an elevation and azimuth beam cluster on receive. the fully adaptive beam space signal processor conversion introduces the capability for the effective adaptive nulling of multiple side lobe barrage noise jammers without the need of additional sensing channels. In addition, the beam space adaptive processor provides the needed degrees of freedom for the effective nulling of a main beam jammer so that the coverage loss is minimized for the artillery shell traversing the beamcluster on its outward trajectory. The significant target azimuth and elevation errors resulting, for example, from the nulling of a near mainbeam jammer are also eliminated with a Maximum Likelihood Estimator (MLE) compensating procedure which is an integral part of the beam space adaptive signal processor. The proposed Phase II program will progress towards a feasibility demonstration of a fielded bistatic radar operating in a jamming environment and incorporating some of the major techniques under development during the Phase I program. The program goal is to provide the Army, in a timely manner, and completely compatible with the Army's planned baseline design, the fully adaptive-in-the-beam space signal and data processing subsystem design, including implementation concepts, an simulation testbed, and laboratory and field testing procedures.