A MONOLITHIC ACT CHANNELIZED INTERCEPT SYSTEM

CURRENT "ALL DIGITAL" CHANNELIZED APPROACHES TO INTERCEPT OF SPREAD SPECTRUM/FREQUENCY HOPPING COMMUNICATIONS SIGNALS CANNOT EFFECTIVELY ADDRESS THE PROBLEMS POSTED BY "FULL BAND: (\200 MHZ) MEDIUM-FAST (> OR - 500 HPS) FREQUENCY HOPPING WAVEFORMS. HYBRID DS/FH COMMUNICATIONS WAVEFORMS POSE EVEN MORE STRINGENT PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS, UNSATISFIABLE BY CURRENT OR NEAR-TERM DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY. USE OF ACT TECHNOLOGY AS A DIGITALLY PROGRAMMABLE TRANSVERSAL CHANNELIZER, OPTIMIZED ALTERNATIVELY FOR EITHER "SPREAD" (HYBRID) OR "UNSPREAD) FREQUENCY HOPPING WAVEFORMS CAN PROVIDE THE ESSENTIAL FRONT END FREQUENCY PARTITIONING FUNCTION FOR A HIGH PERFORMANCE SPREAD SPECTRUM/LPI COMMUNICATIONS INTERCEPT SYSTEM. ARRANGING TWO SUCH CHANNELIZERS AS AN INTERFEREOMETER WILL ALLOW EXPLOITATION OF THE ONE ATTRIBUTE WHICH LPI EMITTERS (GENERALLY) CANNOT CONTROL; NAMELY, SPATIALLY COHERENT EMISSIONS. EFFECTING THE INTERFEROMETRIC (AOA) MEASUREMENT(S) VIA A CORRELATION TYPE OF PHASE DETECTOR INSURES COHERENT INTEGRATION PERFORMANCE; 35 TO 40 DB SNR ENHANCEMENT CAN BE EXPECTED FOR (HYBRID) HOP RATES OF 500 TO 1,000 HPS.