Capabilities, developments and challenges in non-cooperative target identification using radar

The ultimate goal of any sensorial investigation of a target is to collect information on its class and — if possible — identity. There are different methods in use already based on cooperative systems, as "IFF-systems" (Identification-Friend-Foe). But positive identification of hostile or neutral targets is only possible via "Non-Cooperative Classification (NCI)-methods" which do not expect active support of the target under consideration. Capabilities and challenges of NCI will be presented in this paper.