Portable Weather Radar Maturation with Advanced AESA

his STRATFI request is to mature a multifunction radar called Portable Weather Radar (PWR) sponsored by USAF but incorporating AFRL funded Active Electronically Steered Antenna technology (AESA). The primary objective of the radar is to provide a small, low power, low cost sensor for weather forecasting and air traffic situation awareness capable of >90km coverage radius but installed to make observations to ground level often not covered by NEXRAD. The funding requested will mature the PWR product attributes necessary to fulfill the essential role of severe weather surveillance and air safety monitoring. The product was purposely architected to service not only DoD but also the civilian market.  The proposed scope includes final design changes to the baseline architecture for high volume, very low cost manufacturing followed by environmental and EMI/EMC qualification testing. The scope also includes adding Artificial Intelligence Nowcasting and Air Surveillance software along with demonstrations of both through collaboration with Colorado State University and Oklahoma University. The scope also includes the design of a new 2D AESA for enhanced capabilities that can replace the 1D AESA within the existing PWR packaging.  The final design would support higher update rates for weather and air traffic using 1D AESA and/or significantly higher updates with 2D AESA technology. The integration of AI-based nowcasting further improves real-time decision-making, for predictive weather intelligence and persistent monitoring of airspace with minimal operator burden. This STRATFI request evolves PWR as an indispensable tool for future intelligent sensing architectures across DoD and civilian agencies.