Subarray-based FDA radar to counteract deceptive ECM signals

Ahmed Abdalla,Suhad Mohamed,Tang Bin,Zhao Yuan,Wen-Qin Wang

doi:10.1186/s13634-016-0403-6

Abstract

In recent years, the frequency diverse array (FDA) radar concept has attracted extensive attention, as it may benefit from a small frequency increment, compared to the carrier frequency across the array elements and thereby achieve an array factor that is a function of the angle, the time, and the range which is superior to the conventional phase array radar (PAR). However, limited effort on the subject of FDA in electronic countermeasure scenarios, especially in the presence of mainbeam deceptive jamming, has been published. Basic FDA is not desirable for anti-jamming applications, due to the range-angle coupling response of targets. In this paper, a novel method based on subarrayed FDA signal processing is proposed to counteract deceptive ECM signals. We divide the FDA array into multiple subarrays, each of which employs a distinct frequency increment. As a result, in the subarray-based FDA, the desired target can be distinguished at subarray level in joint range-angle-Doppler domain by utilizing the fact that the jammer generates false targets with the same ranges to each subarray without reparations. The performance assessment shows that the proposed solution is effective for deceptive ECM targets suppression. The effectiveness is verified by simulation results.

Highlights

Multifunction phased-array radar (PAR) is a specialized application of general PAR technology, designed to simultaneously fulfill the multiple functions of national air and weather surveillance [1, 2]
The main contribution of this paper is to provide the frequency diverse array (FDA) subarray level for countering the deception jamming, according to the fact that the digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) repeated jammer can hardly create false targets with appropriated range related for each element/subarray due to frequency offsets
The most important difference of the FDA, in conflict to PAR, is that there is a small frequency increment in the carrier frequency used across the elements and making the array beam focusing direction vary as a function of the range, angle, and time

Summary

Introduction

Multifunction phased-array radar (PAR) is a specialized application of general PAR technology, designed to simultaneously fulfill the multiple functions of national air and weather surveillance [1, 2]. The most important difference of the FDA, in conflict to PAR, is that there is a small frequency increment in the carrier frequency used across the elements and making the array beam focusing direction vary as a function of the range, angle, and time. It can be clearly seen that from the aforementioned considerations, the transmitted beampattern of the traditional PAR is angle-dependent while that of the FDA radar is range-angle-dependent, and the FDA provides better control over modulation and beam synthesis when compared to the conventional phased array. The FDA might be a perfect way for protecting the radar from the deception jamming, since different frequencies are employed in the transmitted signal, which are not accessible for conventional PAR. For higher resolution f needs to be a higher value

Subarray-based FDA signal model

Conclusions