TABLE OF CONTENTS Because a surveillance radar must transmit continually, it is easy to detect by reconaissance and ESM and therefore vulnerable to jamming and anti-radar missiles. In contrast, a tracking radar is only activated to support defence actions after the detection of penetrating targets. The intention of this chapter is to discuss a radar operational concept which permits minimum vulnerability against these threats. It is therefore especially suitable for a medium-range search function [1]. This concept could in principle be implemented by a special radar system or it may also be applied to the search mode of a multifunction phased-array radar.
For the purpose of protection against ESM and ARM, two aspects have to be considered:
we have to avoid or render as difficult as possible the reconnaissance of our radar by the opposing ESM platform, usually on an aircraft which is also carrying the ARMs
an incoming ARM must be deceived effectively by decoy transmitters, without interrupting our own radar's search operation
Standard radar systems are exposed electronically, especially by the high pulse power distributed by the scanning main beam and the antenna pattern sidelobes. The sidelobe radiation of radars, which may be continuously evaluated by an ARM seeker for extracting its guidance information, may be covered by decoy transmitters operating at a suitable distance from the radar with omnidirectional radiation. The total power radiated from this additional decoy transmitter has to be of the same order of magnitude as the active transmitter. In contrast, it is impossible to...
