PHYSICAL PROTECTION GROUND SURVEILLANCE RADAR

This paper presents an economical yet modern ground surveillance radar whose effectiveness is demonstrated against a variety of target types in two physical protection scenarios. The radar design incorporates readily available microwave and IF solid-state devices along with digital processing and display in functionally interchangeable blocks that allow both maintainability and system flexibility. The current realization of the radar uses a 1 Watt transmitter (GaAs), a single 16\" x 16\" flat plate antenna used to transmit and receive, data rate reduction techniques involving coherent demodulation to baseband and a 128 point Fast Fourier Transform implementation using standard logic components. The display, or presentation, of the processed data is unique to this type of radar in that a graphical representation of range is presented with vertical bars indicating single or multiple target presence by relative size. Numerical range and velocity is given and updated (on a dwell-by-dwell basis) on the most prominent detection. A Constant False Alarm Rate (CFAR) is maintained by integrating samples of the processed data thereby adjusting Radar sensitivity to different terrain and clutter types. A frequency content display of the processed data is available for inspection of potential target signatures. All display features are menu driven using a single keystroke entry to change radar parameters with the additional ability to capture any single event display. A discussion of actual test results is provided. The system's modular design was chosen to make full use of advances in component technology to provide irnprovements in system performance.