The Detection and Location of Buried Metallic and Nonmetallic Targets

There is a disturbance in the earth's surface characteristics when a mine is buried beneath the surface, or when mines are scattered on the surface. The observables are the local variations in the soil radar reflectivity, and the eddy currents that can be induced by a metal detector (AN/PSS-12). There are large variations in the constitutive properties of the soil caused by nature and large variations due to man made contamination (cans, shell fragments, cartridges, etc.) which compounds the detection process. The detection of the M-14 , which is non-metallic and approximately 2 inches in diameter and 2 inches high, presents the severest detection challenge. THe synergism of combining a metal detector with a ground penetrating radar improves the detection process and reduces the false alarms; however, the ratio of the M-14 induced signal to the earth surface return is very, very small as measured with current antenna systems. QRC successfully demonstrated a height insensitive radar antenna with 5 inch diameter footprint integrated with the AN/PSS-12 that detected the M-14 ;mines at the HHMD ATD held at the Uma Proving Grounds. Decreasing the footprint to a 2 inch diameter footprint would increase the probability of detection, and when arrayed could provide a substantial swath width. QRC proposes to design and evaluate broad band antenna techniques which provide significantly reduced foot prints (thereby providing improved small target detection) suitable to be integrated without performance degradation into the AN/PSS-12.