Mission determines equality between radars

Forty-three L-band radars will be deployed on the periphery of the United States for joint use by the United States Air Force and the Federal Aviation Administration. The unattended radar system is designed to scan a range of 250 nautical miles up to an altitude of 100,000 feet, with lookdown capability from high sites. The radar must detect fast, small radar cross-section aircraft in a realistic man-made and natural interference environment (including thousands of flocks of birds), while minimizing false alarms. The radar must also generate weather intensity contours. The paper describes trade-offs that were made in the process of selecting and designing a system architecture that needed to serve two different users with different mission requirements. It also gives guidelines for off-the-shelf purchases and planning for future growth in mission requirements.