X-BAND, AIR-TO-AIR RADAR, SIDELOBE CLUTTER MITIGATION THROUGH ADAPTIVE PROCESSING

THIS PROPOSAL PRESENTS AN APPROACH FOR PROVIDING A SIDELOBE CLUTTER SUPPRESSION CAPABILITY TO THE X-BAND, AIR-TO-AIR, LOOK-DOWN RADAR OPERATING IN THE DOPPLER AMBIGUOUS MEDIUM AND LOW PRF MODES USING SPACE/TIME TECHNIQUES. IN PARTICULAR, ADVANTAGE WILL BE TAKE OF PLANNED JAMMER CANCELLATION CAPABILITIES IN THE FORM OF AN ADAPTIVE SIDELOBE CANCELLATION (ASLC) SYSTEM. THE APPROACH DEALS WITH THE JAMMER/CLUTTER INTERATION PROBLEM BY CANCELLING BOTH JAMMING AND CLUTTER SIGNALS AT A COMMON ANCELLATION NODE. A KEY FEATURE OF THE APPROACH IS CONSTRIANING THE SPACE/TIME PROCESS BY PREFILTERING THE INPUTS, FROM THE MAIN AND AUXILIARY CHANNELS, TO THE WEIGHT GENERATIONPROCESS, SIGNIFICANTLY ENHANCING CLUTTER CANCELLATION PERFORMANCE WHILE SUPPRESSING INTERATCTIONS WITH MAINLOBE CLUTTER. ANOTHER FEATURE OF THE PROJECT IS THE USE OF A TIME-SAMPLE COMPUTER MODEL, IMPLEMENTED ON A HIGH SPEED ARRAY PROCESSOR IN A SUN WORKSTATION ENVIRONMENT, WHICH WILL CLOSELY REPRESENT REAL HARDWARE. FINALLY, THEPROJECT WILL DEFINE A PHASE II PROGRAM WHICH WILL DEVELOP AN EXPERIMENTAL X-BAND TEST BED FOR CONDUCTING LABORATORY AND ROOF TOP TEST.