DYNAMIC PROCESSOR FOR PASSIVE RF RANGING

THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVE OF THE PHASE I EFFORT IS TO EVALUATE THE FEASIBILITY OF DEVELOPING A DYNAMIC PROCESSOR OF SINGLE-PLATFORM PASSIVE RADIO FREQUENCY (RF) MEASUREMENTS, FOR REAL-TIME ESTIMATION OF RANGE AND LOCATION OF THREAT EMITTERS. THE BASIC APPROACH PROPOSED FOR STUDY IS BASED ON A TWO-STAGE PROCESSOR: A "FRONT-END" PROCESSOR WHICH TRANSFORMS THE INCOMING STREAM OF ANGLE-ONLY MEASUREMENTS INTO AN EVOLVING TIME HISTORY OF THREAT HEADING AND RANGE TIME (OR SPEED-NORMALIZED RANGE); AND A SECOND-STAGE DYNAMIC ESTIMATOR WHICH INCORPORATES A MODEL OF THE THREAT/PLATFORM DYNAMICS TO EFFECT NOISE REDUCTION AND ACCURATE RANGING, VIA OPTIMAL FILTERING. WE PROPOSE TO EVALUATE THE SYSTEM'S FEASIBILITY OVER THREE TASKS. WE WILL: 1) DEFINE A PRELIMINARY DESIGN FOR A PASSIVE RANGING SYSTEM BASED UPON THE PROPOSED TWO-STAGE PROCESSOR, AND IDENTIFY BASIC PROCESSING REQUIREMENTS, CANDIDATE ALGORITHMS, AND PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS; 2) IMPLEMENT AND EVALUATE CANDIDATE ALGORITHMS FOR USE IN EACH SUBSYSTEM, AND IDENTIFY THESE FOR INCORPORATION INTO THE OVERALL SYSTEM DESIGN; AND 3) EVALUATE PERFORMANCE VIA A SYSTEM-LEVEL SIMULATION, AND IDENTIFY SIGNIFICANT DESIGN TRADES. A FINAL REPORT WILL SUMMARIZE THE PROGRAM'S OBJECTIVES AND RESULTS, ASSESS BASIC SYSTEM FEASIBILITY, AND OUTLINE A PROGRAM FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT, AS REQUIRED.