Range/Angle Radar Imaging for Non-Cooperative Combat Identification

During Phase I, MARK Resources very successfully demonstrated the feasibility of a Future Combat System ground vehicle performing ground-to-ground non-cooperative combat identification using data collected by its Multi-Function Radio Frequency radar. The demonstration of feasibility applies more generally to wideband Ku-band and Ka-band vehicle-borne radars. The identification processing extracts target features that persist over large changes in target orientation, are insensitive to target articulation or configuration, and can be easily obtained from photographs for a comparison database. Examples include target dimensions, whether or not a vehicle is tracked, and number and positions of wheels. We demonstrated the accurate extraction of these and other features on radar data of stationary and moving vehicles, at cruder range and Doppler resolutions than would be available operationally, using several different vehicles at a variety of aspects. We also demonstrated that the extracted features and achieved accuracies allow target identification within a large set of combat vehicles, by comparing actual feature values for the set. During Phase II, we propose to refine and automate the Phase I algorithms, and to demonstrate that the automated algorithms can provide high-confidence identification of both stationary and moving vehicles under operational conditions for the MFRF radar and FCS vehicles.