Adaptive Array Processing for Targeting Radar Applications

"Wideband radar systems used for ISR and strike applications offer many advantages over their narrowband counterparts, including higher range resolution for better target detection and identification. However, many challenges exist when wideband phasedarray radar systems are used for MTI. Larger bandwidth causes more dispersions both in angle and Doppler. The angle dispersion across the array reduces the number of wideband jammers that can be suppressed by the array, unless a tapped delay line type ofapproach is used with space-time adaptive processing algorithms for jamming suppression. Yet the tapped delay line approach significantly increases the amount of computations and the need for a large amount of target-free secondary data. To avoid theseproblems, subbanding approaches become an attractive alternative since they avoid angle and Doppler dispersion problems, as well as the need for a large amount of target-free secondary data, require fewer computations and hence the power consumption, andare readily suitable for parallel processing. Our approach for addressing these key problems is based on 1) developing optimal statistical processing-based subbanding algorithms for performing both the moving target detection problem and the targetparameter estimation problem (velocity and direction of arrival), 2) developing an RF systems testbed environment for generating realistic radar signature data to test the algorithms, and 3) r