The modification of a surface shipborn radar (DECCA 1226) in order to meet military standards (high resolution) without changing its electronic signature

Abstract

This is a theoretical study examining the possibility to use a commercial, shipborne navigational radar, for target classification and identification, without changing its electronic signature. The reason for such a modification is that using sophisticated pulse forms for target recognition can betray the user's presence and give an intelligence advantage to potential enemy platforms. In order to extract a target's class or identity the data of the radar's video detector are fed to a high performance PC with digitizing capability. There the target's class is obtained through a series of transforms, while the target's identity is obtained by computing he target's frequency response to a very short pulse. Through the MUSIC method. While the classification process does not require any changes in the transmitter, in order to obtain target identification in tactically useful ranges it is necessary to increase the transmitter's power and add an additional very short pulse.