Innovative Fire Control Radar Technology for Improved Sensing and Engagement of Tactical Short-Range Airborne Threats

PRA proposes to mature to TRL-5 the existing hardware and software for the Orthogonal Interferometer (OI) radar and Precision Pulse Positioning System (3PS) guidance capability developed under previous Phase I, Phase II and Enhanced Phase II contracts. The OI radar uses waveform diversity for enhanced radar tracking and endgame guidance performance to support the IFPC2 mission, achieving enhanced angle accuracy and multipath mitigation over conventional radar architectures and enabling 3PS guidance. The 3PS guidance concept addresses the need for low-cost precision guidance and control of interceptors by creating what is essentially a localized energy field using the OI radar technology. The OI/3PS approach combines the best of command guidance with the best of semi-active guidance but utilizes significantly less fire control power-aperture and provides lower cost for target engagement than conventional command guidance, semi-active guidance, and active seeker approaches. As a result, the OI/3PS technology offers the potential to combine radar search and track with target engagement and intercept into a single radar that will facilitate maintaining current force structure manpower requirements. Since 3PS requires significantly less onboard radar hardware than semi-active or active seekers, 3PS will reduce the interceptor complexity resulting in reduced production and maintenance cost.