New Non-Cooperative Target Recognition (NCTR) Techniques Development

The complex jamming threat to Navy radars, such as the AN/SPY-1 radar family, consists of barrage and modulated noise jammers on the one hand, and analog and digital deceptive jammers on the other. Vulnerability to jamming will generally increase withgrowing radar sensitivity and the evolving Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) based deceptive jammer technology and its broad proliferation. This proposal is concerned with waveform and processing techniques to enable existing radar systems to maintaintheir operational performance in the presence of deceptive jammers. (Unlike techniques required to counter noise jammers, the above do not require changes to array beamforming architecture and receiver design.) In the proposal, we first discuss fundamentalrepeater jammer limitations. We then describe several potential techniques to counter repeater jammers, whose respective enabling technologies are deemed to exist. They are separated into several processing categories, and include both passive and activeapproaches. Several techniques are selected for study during the basic Phase I period, and a simulation package is proposed to be defined in the Phase I Option and developed in Phase II, along with validation tests, in support of off-line analysis andinclusion in radar upgrades.This research and development effort could lead to clear understanding of fundamental repeater jammer limitations - particularly of the DRFM variety - and of techniques to counter such threats both in existing radar systems,through upgrades, and in future radars. A simulation package to be developed in Phase II of this SBIR will support the insertions of such techniques to various radar systems - future and existing. The products of this effort are expected to be applicableto all military radars within the context of shipboard, airborne and space-borne applications.