Waveforms for Simultaneous Air and Ground Surveillance Operations

Black River Systems Co., Inc. and L-3 Communications, Government Services, Inc. propose to develop advanced diverse waveforms and processing techniques compatible with a new Multiple Input-Multiple Output (MIMO) radar architecture that provide simultaneous surveillance of air and ground targets for overlapping regions. Advanced waveforms, compatible with the MIMO radar architecture, will be designed and validated using computer simulations during Phase I. The primary emphasis during Phase I includes: (1) defining radar waveforms incorporating spatial, temporal, frequency and polarization diversity and incorporating novel coding/modulation techniques compatible with the MIMO radar concept, enabling simultaneous multi-mode operation, (2) defining the associated signal processing techniques, (3) defining metrics and performance criteria for future multi-mode surveillance systems for a comparison baseline, (4) demonstrating the feasibility of simultaneous multi-mode operation utilizing the diverse waveforms via simulation, and (5) developing a Phase II plan addressing the research objectives and laboratory measurements necessary for proof-of-concept. Laboratory proof-of-concept experiments validating the proposed concepts are proposed for Phase II.