Detectability of Low Radar Cross-Section (RCS) Targets at Sea

Future Navy ships operating in littoral waters must have low radar cross-section (RCS). Defining these requirements demands an accurate radar detectability model to give ship designers the tools to make appropriate trade-offs. The key to assessing the detectability of ships is to accurately model site-specific clutter and derive detection statistics from an accurate interference and signal model. Information Systems Laboratories, (ISL) proposes to integrate a Navy-developed ducting model into its Splatter, Clutter, And Target Signal (SCATST) model to predict site-specific clutter with high fidelity and apply the results to the problem of accurate ship detectability. The SCATST model is a fully polarametric radar phenomenology model which takes into account the complete scattering environment including multipath, bistatic scattering, and off-axis components over both land and sea. In this Phase I program, a ducting model will be integrated and the resulting product assessed for sensitivity to choice of environmental parameters. This effort will establish the feasibility of the approach for achieving the accuracy required.