Proceedings of the 11th European Radar Conference

Performance Indicators Modern Surveillance Radar

Peter N.C. Nooij Arne Theil
Thales Nederland Netherlands Organization of Applied Scientific Research TNO
Hengelo (Ov.) The Hague
Netherlands Netherlands
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract1— Blake chart computations are widely employed to

rank detection coverage capabilities of competitive search radar
systems. Developed for comparable 2D radar systems with a
mechanically rotating reflector antenna, it was not necessary to
regard update rate and plot quality in Blake’s chart. To
characterize the system's critical awareness, the inclusion of
update rate is, however, of utmost importance. Performance
indicators that are considered in this communication therefore
contain update rate, resulting in a coverage rate metric. Plot
quality is integrated in the coverage information rate metric,
which relates to the system’s situational awareness as well. It is
concluded that Blake chart-only comparison is not sufficient to
rank competing modern search radar systems based on different
radar principles. Coverage information rate is elaborated for
several radar principles, in chronological order starting with
Blake’s rotating 2D search radar and finalizing with a modern
non-rotating four face fixed phased array 4D surveillance radar.

Keywords—Blake chart; coverage; coverage rate ; 2D-4D

resolution; coverage information rate

I. INTRODUCTION
Quick radar performance comparisons are dominated by
coverage computations based on radar charts as introduced by
Lamont V. Blake in 1962 [1] as shown in Fig. 1. The Blake
chart has been developed for 2D search radar of the 1960’s,
applying comparable principles in terms of antenna,
waveform, detection and plot extraction, i.e.:

 Antenna: Rotating reflector antenna with a cosec2- Fig. 1. Blake’s chart to determine maximum radar detection range
like elevation beam pattern.
 Waveform: Low-PRF (unambiguous range). Since that era, -some fifty years ago-, extensive changes
 Detection: Binary integration and 2D estimation of have taken place in both operational missions and radar
the target’s range-bearing position by leading/ principles. A variety of complex operational warfare2
trailing edge over the clustered pre-detections in requirements3 are integrated and a multitude of different
range and azimuth (“bit-map” with ones and zeroes). search radar principles are offered nowadays, i.e. 2D, 3D and
“4D” (position plus radial velocity) with rotating and multiple
Blake chart comparisons for radar look-a-likes resulted in fixed antenna panels or “faces”. The enhanced angular radar
straightforward ranking of operational 2D performance resolution during the years of rotating search radar evolution is
potencies. Dedicated to designate the “threat”, search radar illustrated in Fig. 2.
development was governed by the maximum range
requirement. The 2D search radar target data was sent to the Nowadays, the majority of military missions consists of
fire channel of the assigned effector to neutralize the threat. peacekeeping operations. Consequently, search radar is
Operator designation was based on a “blip” on the plan subjected to support both critical and situational awareness
position indicator (PPI), a range-bearing display.
2
E.g. littoral warfare, asymmetrical threat masked by or disguised as civil traffic
1 3
The manuscript of this paper was prepared in the framework of D-RACE (Dutch RAdar E.g. automatic tracking, classification, identification of all radar targets of interest
Centre of Expertise, a strategic alliance of Thales Nederland B.V. and TNO). within the coverage

978-2-87487-037-8 © 2014 EuMA 237 8-10 Oct 2014, Rome, Italy

tasks. Low false alarm rate multi-target tracking, target Blake’s range coverage4 Rm(i) at elevation el(i) = i. ( =
classification and identification (friend or foe) are important elevation step in degree in [Emin, Emax] domain) and update
qualities, i.e. more important than long range detection of a time Tm of search volume m are equally5 weighted
potential threat. Hereto Blake’s coverage alone is not
sufficient. Blake’s chart fails to take into account the track
quality, which is determined by the dimension (2D, 3D, 4D)
and resolution of the plot in the search volume covered.    
Alternative performance measures are introduced in this
paper. The update rate of the search volume is introduced in Air Surveillance supports air traffic control and situational
the “Coverage Rate” (CR). The update rate and quality of the awareness tasks. Cosec2-pattern type of coverage as shown in
radar information is integrated in the “Coverage Information Fig. 3b) secures track continuity of constant level flight air
Rate” (CIR). The latter gives an indication of the potential traffic after initial detection. In this manner knowledge of the
track-, classification- and identification-quality within the target (e.g. state, identification, classification) is maintained
coverage. within the coverage because track loss is prevented. The
volume coverage rate CRV is approximated by integration in
elevation ( = elevation step in radians) over the azimuth
coverage covfor the search volumes examined

   

B. Coverage Information Rate

CIR expands CR with the radar plot resolution. CIR is a
measure for the appreciation of the surveillance radar during
peace-time operations and in evaluating the asymmetric threat.
Fig. 2. Rotating antenna evolution going from Blake’s a) fan beam, to b) Within Blake’s coverage, CIR qualifies aspects such as plot-
elevation scanned pencil beam (sequential lobing), and c) multi-beam resolution, -discrimination, -accuracy, track-continuity, -
(simultaneous lobing). Modern multi-beam in azimuth and elevation is not classification, -identification, radar robustness and reliability
shown. 4D radar refers to instantaneous radial velocity measurement with
multi-beam (i.e. low false alarm and track rate). The following coverage6
and 4D radar effective7 resolution (indicated with ) aspects
II. PERFORMANCE INDICATORS per search volume are integrated in the CRel expression (1)

A. Coverage Rate  Radial Range: Coverage within unambiguous range,

i.e. R(i) = max(Rmin, min(Rmax, Ro(i)), resolution R.
 Radial Velocity: Two-sided unambiguous radial
velocity: NVrad = 2(Vmax – Vmin)/Vrad.
 Azimuth: Required instrumented bearing coverage:
NB = (Bmax – Bmin)/B.
 Elevation: Instantaneous resolution E within [Emin,
Emax], i.e. the elevation domain to be covered.

CIR in [s-1] is defined here as

Fig. 3. Illustration of the covered search volume per time unit or coverage
rate for a) CRel in [km.o/s] supporting critical awareness or Defence against
diving missile threat between 0-70o elevation, b) CRV in [km3/s] supporting
situational awareness or Surveillance for constant level flight targets    

Air Defence requires coverage as shown in Fig. 3a) to

4
establish similar track-while-scan initiation or initial Blake’s chart result Ro is the free space detection range for the target radar cross section,
Swerling case and elevation of interest as computed in the Blake chart in Fig. 1
“designation” ranges in elevation. In this manner in-time 5
Uniform weights for radar coordinates range, elevation and update time are used
neutralization of the diving missile threat, -e.g. between 0-70o 6
7
Instrumented or required coverage per radar coordinate is indicated by e.g. R min, Rmax
Effective resolution is dependent on wave-, beam-form agility, radar resolution -3 dB
elevation can be achieved. Formula (1) can be derived for m = response width, sampling and number of coherent measurements to form a plot, e.g. E =
1, …., N search volumes to estimate the integrated CR. effective elevation resolution

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This is an integrated measure of the plot/track quality, before the threat penetrates the radar platform. Multi-beam
responsiveness and robustness within Blake’s coverage, surveillance radar establishes firm track around 35 km. So,
practically expressed in [dB/s]. straightforward inclusion of the firm track requirement
shows the complete failure of the sequential scanned
III. SEARCH RADAR ANALYSIS tracker as designator. The multi-beam provides in-time
designation to effectively defend the radar platform against
A. Defence: Multi-beam vs. Sequential Scanned Pencil Beam the modern agile multi-threat.
The reaction time, defined by the time from initial
detection up to firm track is critical in many threat scenarios. Calculation of the CRel value confirms the practical
“Firm” means that the track vector’s accuracy (to predict its weakness of sequential scanned pencil beam as multi-threat
destination) and identification (friend/foe) are credible to start designator, i.e. 65 vs. 720 [km.o/s] for the multi-beam, while
threat evaluation and weapon assignment. Sophisticated search the Blake chart Fig. 4 appears to indicate the opposite. Radar
radar simulators can produce firm track range statistics. These selection based on the Blake chart-only would be a deadly
require detailed, mostly classified radar-, target- and scenario- mistake. The easy to compute CR metric helps to prevent this.
data, as well as an up-to-date thoroughly validated radar
model. CR computations are less detailed and provide a Besides the CRel in [km.o/s] used to quantify suitability for
straightforward metric for the inherent search radar’s coverage the anti-air warfare task, volume coverage rate CRV in [km3/s]
capability and responsiveness. Obviously, update-rate and is introduced in (2). This quantifies search radar suitability for
related reaction-time are of great importance for close-in agile situational awareness and air traffic control or surveillance.
threat scenarios, such as a high speed maneuverable missile B. Coverage Information Rate to Qualify Awareness
threat launched from platforms behind coastlines, submarines
or surface vessels. To illustrate the added value of the CR For surveillance, the quality of the target information in
metric a comparison is made for two 30 RPM radar systems: the coverage are of great importance for the reliability of the
a) a Sequential Scanned Pencil Beam (25 E-scan positions) recognized picture. The digital photo image series at the
and b) a 3D Multi-beam (six simultaneous beams) search radar bottom of Fig. 2 shows the quality improvement and better
principle. capability to classify and identify the detected capital
character “R” going from low (1x1 pixel) to high resolution
The Blake chart coverage is shown in Fig. 4. The (100x100). Both the Blake sheet coverage and the CR metric
conclusion is crystal clear: The Sequential Scanned Pencil fail to take into account the number of radar coordinates (2D,
Beam radar is superior in coverage. 3D, 4D) and their resolution, which are clearly discriminators
for image quality. In other words, appreciation of the
increased resolution capability of accurate modern 4D search
radar is absent up to now. The CIR includes the number (here
four, defined in section II.B) instantaneously unambiguous
measured radar coordinates and their effective resolution.

In this section, search radar measurement principles are

indicated in dimensions, i.e. 2D (RB), 3D (RBE) and 4D
(RBEVrad); 2.5D means RBE-plots with poor angular
resolution. The resolution is an indication of the measurement
quality in terms of accuracy, resolution of closely spaced
targets, discrimination from non-targets (natural, biological,
man-made clutter) and additional classifying radar target
features as provided by high range-Doppler resolution
imaging. In other words: The more radar coordinates and
resolution, the better the search radar supports automatic
Fig. 4. 80% Free space Blake chart coverage diagram for 30 RPM rotating multi-dimensional tracking, classification and identification.
multi-beam surveillance and sequential scanned pencil beam tracker So, enhanced target information and higher robustness under
varying natural and electronic environments, i.e. with no/low
Now, a straightforward example is elaborated by hand to
degradation under increasingly stressing scenarios/conditions.
reveal the difference in operational designation performance:
In order to illustrate the use of the CIR metric and radar
A sea skimming anti-ship missile threat approaches with
evolution, an active phased array antenna is chosen. With this
1000 m/s. Best-case the tracker’s E-scan1 initially detects
approach other antenna principles can be readily simulated by
the threat at 70 km (worst-case 24 x 2 s = 48 s later at 70 –
applicable antenna element weighting, i.e. going from the old
48 = 22 km). Promotion to firm track costs 2 to 4 updates
fashioned rotating 2D fan beam to the most up-to-date modern
of E-scan1 or 2 to 4 x 25 x 2 s = 100 to 200 s or 100 to 200
fixed panel 4D multi-beam search radar systems.
km later. Hence, firm track-while-scan is not established

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 Relevant surveillance radar and requirement analysis data 8) 4D Multi-beam (see Fig. 2c))
are: Multi-beam rotator conserves time-on-target at the cost of
Instrumented range [5, 250]8 km; speed [30, 1500] m/s. A 2.3 dB cosec2-taper loss on transmit. Long time-on-target
5 s update rate is required for the search volume up to 70o; 2o allows medium PRF regimes providing unambiguous range
pencil in azimuth. The rotating pencil beam reference radar (H and radial velocity resolution at the cost of 3 dB → Ro = 147
x V = 2o x 6.4o) achieves Ro = 200 km as Blake chart result9. km.

1) 2D Pencil beam reference 9) 4D Multi-beam Four Face Fixed Active Phased Array
Remark that the 70o requirement is not met. 2D Multi-beam gives better angular and much better
Doppler resolution (8x longer time-on-target) → Ro = 165 km.
The CIR is now quickly analyzed for the search radar
evolution from 2D to 4D (results summary see Fig. 5):

2) 2D Fan beam cosec2-pattern

In order to widen the coverage of the single reference
pencil beam a classical cosec2-pattern is employed: Up to 40o
instead of 70o to prevent disproportional loss. This gives a
moderate penalty in one-way loss of 2.5 dB, thus two-way 5
Coverage Information Rate CIR
dB: Blake chart degradation → Ro = 150 km.
80
70
3) 2D Fan beam with PC 60
50

dB/s
The next step is a higher bandwidth pulse modulation. 40
30
Pulse compression (PC) provides an improved range- 20
resolution, -measurement accuracy and clutter discrimination: 10
0
R = 5000 → 100 m, resulting in higher quality information
Pencil

PC
Fan Beam

2.5D Rot

Rotator

Active
MTI/ZVF

3D Passive

3D Active
without a penalty in coverage.

Ref 2D Rotator Sequential Scanned 4D Multi-beam

4) 2D Fan beam with MTI Pencil
Adding moving target indication or MTI-filtering
discriminates moving targets from non- and slowly-moving Fig. 5. Coverage information rate summary conventional 2D fan beam up to
modern 4D Multi-beam four face fixed active phased array surveillance radar
clutter. Resolution of air- and surface-targets in the MTI/non-
MTI-channel. MTI-loss is 2 dB → Ro = 134 km.
IV. CONCLUSION
5) 2.5D Sequential Scanned Pencil Beam (see Fig. 2b))
Alternative coverage metrics have been introduced to
Electronic beam scheduling manages the dwell time and
qualify different search radar candidates for different
Ro per elevation position (eleven beam positions to cover 70o)
operational tasks. To illustrate the ease of computation -
during the time-on-target to create a cosec2-pattern: Ro = 150
starting with a reference radar system- the evolution from 2D
km. Beam-agility limits the MTI application in the upper
fan beam up to the most modern 4D four face phased array
beams (short dwell times), i.e. at two lowest beams at horizon
multi-beam search radar have been analyzed. Blake’s
only (MTIHS) and a relatively poor angular accuracy → 2.5D.
coverage has been extended with three coverage rate metrics,
which indicate the suitability for anti-air warfare (CRel for in
6) 3D Four Face Fixed Passive Phased Array time designation of missile threat between 0-70o), air
In the 1970-s the multi-function radar has been introduced. surveillance or traffic control (CRV) and situational awareness
“Passive” means that the transmitter energy is equally (CIR).
distributed over the faces. Beam scheduling is the same as
above. Extra loss is 2 dB → Ro = 134 km and resolution
As shown graphically in the bar chart in Fig. 5 the
degrades10, which is compensated by mono-pulse techniques. evolution from 2D to 4D search radar tends to enhance the
The latter is introduced in the multi-function radar to provide CIR. The latter principle appears to be more appropriate to
angular accuracies as required for fire control. serve critical and situational awareness aspects by providing a
high 4D information quality and operational robustness (low
7) 3D Four Face Fixed Active Phased Array false alarm-, false track- and false classification-rate).
Active antennae allow simultaneous transmission resulting
in four times longer time-on-target per sector Ro = 189 km.
REFERENCES
8
Low resolution and low PRF assumed, i.e. uncompressed pulse 5 km (i.e. 33 ⅓ s pulse [1] L.V. Blake, “A Guide to Basic Pulse-Radar Maximum Range
with 0.03 MHz bandwidth) and PRF is lower than 600 Hz (250 km unambiguous range)
9
Result computed at broadside antenna is assumed for the target of interest (e.g. 1 m2
Calculation”, NRL report 5868, 1962
SW1) and incoherent pulse integration
10
Due to off-broadside scan loss and beam broadening effect

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