Cruise Missile Detection Using IMSAR's Radar on Stratospheric Platforms

IMSAR proposes leveraging its existing Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 6 stratospheric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Maritime Moving Target Indication (MMTI) systems to develop a radar system that can detect, track, and identify cruise missiles and other airborne targets from a High-Altitude, Long-Endurance (HALE) platform such as a stratospheric balloon or Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). In addition to the existing hardware, the proposed radar will incorporate IMSAR’s existing Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) and Multiple Signal Classification (MUSIC) algorithms from the Moving Target Indication (MTI) and Counter-Unmanned Aircraft System (C-UAS) modes of its airborne radar systems. The proposed system would be able to detect low- Radar-Cross-Section (RCS) targets, such as modern cruise missiles, small commercial drones, and light aircraft, that can sometimes evade legacy radars. By using a look-down geometry and operating from the stratosphere, IMSAR’s proposed system increases the probability of detecting cruise missile because the radar can view the higher RCS side of the cruise missile, while a ground-based system is typically limited to viewing the lower-RCS nose cone. Additionally, a high-altitude system is less subject to multi-path issues, which can plague ground-based and low-altitude systems by adding confusion to the radar data.