Ballistic Debris Coherent Discrimination and Modeling

The MDA is interested in developing a coherent debris model for ballistic missile debris, and in developing a pre-screener to eliminate debris from classifier consideration. This debris is composed of staging hardware, deployment hardware, and solid rocket motor (SRM) debris. SRM debris is prevalent in missile systems with SRM final stages. At higher frequencies, debris RCS can be higher than reentry vehcile RCS. During Phase I, extracting RCS, range rate, tumble rate, and length for objects smaller than a range bin with Single Range Doppler Interferometry (SRDI) was simulated. Our discrimination simulations showed that using an object's length and RCS as features permits accurate discrimination between debris and RVs at HF to X-Band frequencies without dismissing an RV as debris, even with a 30% measurement error. Phase II has two main goals: Calibrate and improve the model to produce high-fidelity simulations for "standard BMD testbeds" incorporation; prepare the SRDI pre-screener algorithms for spiral improvement and insertion into midcourse BMD radar processors. Phase III will integrate the debris prescreening algorithms into BMD midcourse BMD radars and demonstrate the total capability of the updated system. Our project team consists of Boeing Advanced Systems and Raytheon Missile Systems.