From the previous chapters, you can adequately understand and summarize what radars do and how they do it. However, you need some perspective on whether radar is the system of choice for accomplishing a particular objective in view of some of the alter natives available. Good managers must be able not only to understand the salient technical verities of the work they are managing, but be able to make a judicious choice among the options available for getting the job done.

Allocation of scarce resources is probably a manager s most vital task. Reviewing the key attributes and limitations of radar and knowing how other technologies and other systems compare in capability will assist you greatly. Doing these comparisons with matrices and lists is not as much fun or as illuminating as doing them by missions. The first approach would be similar to preparing a cookbook to satisfy all tastes; the second is to discuss the menu that will satisfy a particular craving. Some of these missions are big, and some are small. The extent of the analytical discussion of them has no relationship to their size, but to the adequacy of radar for meeting the requirement.