Automated Battle Damage Indication from Synthetic Aperture Radar Imagery

Vexcel Corporation proposes to develop unique battle damage assessment (BDA) algorithms based on radar signatures produced by high-resolution synthetic aperture radar systems. Our approach takes advantage of telltale delayed response in the SAR dataproduced by radar energy that enters damage holes in recently fired-upon objects. Our phase I work has provided us a theoretical understanding of these responses and demonstrated that they are present in real data at detectable levels. For Phase II wewill develop algorithms that improve the contrast of the delayed responses with respect to the background clutter and improve detection performance. Furthermore, we intend to develop a concept of operations (CONOPS) for using such techniques in currentlyfielded aircraft and radar systems. Delayed responses may prove to be one of the most important BDA features because they can only be produced by an actual entry or exit hole in the target. This contrast with other more indirect features that might yieldambiguous results in the event of near-hit explosions. As far as we know, our detection approach is unique among the approaches being pursued by researches working to solve this challenge, however, we anticipate that our results will combinesynergistically with other proposed approaches.