Innovative Waveforms and Related Signal Processing for Missile Defense Radars

Helios Remote Sensing Systems, Inc. and Michigan Technological University propose to develop and estimate the performance of innovative adaptive wideband waveforms for missile defense radar applications that are jointly and simultaneously optimized on transmit and receive for realistic operating considerations, optimized for expected target, clutter and jamming spectral support and optimized for cooperative radar operation. Operational considerations include spectral management techniques to prevent interference to other co-band systems, operation in the presence of electromagnetic interference, transmitter and receiver effects, and multiple simultaneous radar operation. Our algorithms, featuring jointly optimized transmit-receive wideband waveforms, will mitigate both the transmit and receive effects while optimizing performance for expected target and clutter spectral support, maximizing the achievable SINR, while constraining the waveforms to operate in severely restrictive EMI/RFI environments. Mathematical analyses and computer simulations will demonstrate the performance of the waveforms under near-ideal conditions with simulated first-order radar transmitter and receiver characteristics and realistic target and clutter characteristics during Phase I.