Radar Recording Proves Next-Level System Performance

As radar and electronic warfare systems contend with an increasingly crowded environment, recording tests, interactions, and conflicts provides insight that can help assure future triumphs.

Like commercial communications, radar and electronic warfare (EW) systems must now function successfully in an increasingly crowded and, therefore, unpredictable electromagnetic spectrum operations environment (EMSO). In fact, the radio frequency (RF) spectrum grows only more congested as these intentional aerospace defense systems intersect with everything else that might interfere, such as terrestrial broadcast signals, different generations of cellular communications, and satellite communications. Modern threats and countermeasures flood the modern EM spectral environment with thousands of emitters, including radios, wireless devices, and radar transmissions. This, in conjunction with advanced digital signal processing (DSP), creates a dramatically complex electromagnetic spectrum.

DSP led to advancements in dynamic range and algorithm complexity. This environment creates complex signal activity, leading to dynamic and evolving threats for EW and radar systems. While many of these systems keep pace with their environment via technology advancements, such as high-performance DSP and gallium nitride (GaN) amplifiers, the sheer number of possible scenarios from one threat creates difficult challenges.