Waveform trade-offs for medium PRF air-to-air radar

Abstract

The author determines what drives selection of the mean pulse repetition frequency (PRF) for use in current air-to-air radar system design, and what points these factors become critical. Data are presented that indicate that the relationship between velocity blanking and PRF is the important factor; approximate minimum PRF values for the cases considered are provided. Selection of the average PRF and the transmitted pulse width control the pattern of blind zones in unambiguous range-Doppler space. In addition, selection of the compressed pulse width affects losses, signal-to-clutter ratio, and false alarm opportunities, as well as the ability to resolve range ambiguity and reject ghosts. The present study was also used to determine the effect of ground moving target (GMT) rejection by blanking of the unambiguous Doppler signal. This was shown to range from 0.2 to 1.5 dB. the effect of resolving Doppler ambiguity before declaring a target was shown to be about 1 dB. The effect of changes in range resolution on target detection was shown to be small. These last points show tradeoffs between processing complexity and increased performance. Velocity ambiguity resolution and reduced compressed pulse width cause predictable increases in processing requirements. GMT rejection based on resolved Doppler cause a less well-defined increase in the postprocessor workload.<>