Performance Indicators Modern Surveillance Radar: Peter N.C. Nooij Arne Theil
Performance Indicators Modern Surveillance Radar: Peter N.C. Nooij Arne Theil
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
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
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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.
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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):
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.
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