Airborne Multistatic Passive Surveillance (AMPS) System

Toyon will design and develop a multistatic passive radar (MPR) system for the detection, tracking, and imaging of surface-based vessels from airborne platforms. The system will opportunistically use radio-frequency (RF) emission in the operational area, including signals from low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that have high signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs). The system will leverage low-SNR signal processing algorithms capable of detecting and localizing off of power levels significantly below the noise floor. Additional processing gains will be achieved through the simultaneous use of multiple signals-of-opportunity and a multi-sensor fusion architecture. The system will first detect targets using high-SNR low-resolution waveforms, which will be used to bootstrap another set of low-SNR high-resolution signals for improved localization, tracking, and imaging. Platform motion will be used to improve SNR and direction-of-arrival (DOA) accuracy. The size, weight and power (SWAP) requirements of the passive system will be minimal in comparison to existing active radar systems. A modern Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) is believed to be sufficient for processing the candidate signals. A preliminary design will be completed and the feasibility of the system will be validated during Phase I using both measured and simulated data. The prototype will be built and demonstrated during Phase II.