Target ID and Radar Backtracking of Anti-Aircraft Projectiles

AAA, SAMs and future rail-gun weapons present a significant threat to US aircraft including the F-35 JSF and AC-130 in contested areas. In Phase 1, TSC will investigate radar-based approaches to both identify AAA and SAMs on the battlefield and to detect and backtrack their projectiles to their points of origin. TSC will also develop an air combat decision aid that predicts AAA sites based on topography and other knowledge, and integrates radar-based identification and location data to find mobile AAA and SAM threats. The focus will be on Active Electronically Scanned Array radars on fighter platforms that offer the most capability. TSC will identify promising RF discriminants of AAA targets using its in-house RCS modeling tools , design prototype radar modes and processing algorithms, and assess their performance for defined scenarios. TSC will leverage its expertise in Counter-fire Target Acquisition radar modes, multiple aperture techniques, missile trajectory reconstruction and geospatial analysis to perform this research. In Phase 2, TSC will refine the most promising techniques and conduct high fidelity simulations of classified radar and AAA systems. In Phase 3, TSC will work with the prime to validate its approach on recorded radar data and support flight test demonstrations.