2 - Initial Statements of Operational Requirements

Abstract

Airborne civilian applications mainly concern weather radars of liners and exclusive economic zone surveillance (EEZ). Space-based civilian radars are used for global earth resource management. This chapter discusses defense missions and military radar systems. Operational missions are divided into four main missions: surveillance, reconnaissance, targeting, and weapon delivery. Radars are involved in all four missions. In air defense, the surveillance is carried out by airborne early warning systems (AEW), which are in charge of detecting any airborne threat with sufficient notice to be able to react on time. The main objective of reconnaissance missions is to reacquire targets—in case they are moved as ballistic missile launchers—and to identify and locate them accurately. Fire control and targeting air defense or air superiority is carried out with interceptors or fighter aircrafts that take off from airbase after a few minutes of the AEW alert. A carrier is a platform that can be equipped along with the radar. A military-context platform includes satellites, aircrafts, helicopters, active homing head missiles (seekers), unmanned air vehicles (UAV), and smart munitions. A wide and ever-increasing range of aeronautical weapons has been developed: guns, rockets, conventional bombs, laser-guided missiles or bombs, air-to-air missiles, air-to-ground missiles, air-to-sea missiles, cruise missiles, and lethal UAVs.