Airborne Parasitic Bistatic Radar System

Black River Systems Co., Inc. and Syracuse Research Corporation propose to develop an airborne PC-based passive surveillance system that utilizes non-cooperative radar transmissions to generate a bistatic radar picture. The system design will balance detection performance with system cost, weight, and size and be capable of utilizing conventional mechanically scanned donor radars, as well as frequency, pulse and beam agile donor radars. As part of this effort, we will investigate advanced features such as exploitation of various waveforms, coherent and non-coherent clutter suppression, innovative synchronization approaches, geolocation, as well as other advanced approaches that are required to utilize frequency, pulse and beam agile radar systems as hosts in dense emitter environments. We will design an airborne PC-based passive surveillance system by leveraging existing designs as starting points. The design process will include requirements allocation, analyses and tradeoffs of implementation parameters, hardware/software solutions and algorithm alternatives using applicable quantitative measures of performance. A feasibility demonstration of a complete PC-based passive surveillance system via analysis, simulations and system similarity will be provided. In addition, a Phase II program plan for development, test and deployment of a PC-based sensor testbed suitable for use on a manned aircraft will be provided.BENEFITS: The technology developed will become instrumental in civilian applications by piggybacking on available illumination systems such as air traffic control radars or nearby ship radars in coastal environments. Other possible candidates include passive surveillance platforms and stealth aircraft. In addition, it is sometimes important to get two or three-dimensional wind field information. Bistatic adjuncts to large weather radars such as NEXRAD can potentially provide some of that information.