Warship radar cross section determination and reduction, and hindrances in optimizing radar cross section reduction on warships

Abstract

From the begining of military warfare, it has always been extremely important to know the enemy position and hide oneself to capitalize on elements of surprise and initiative, and same is true for naval warfare. Radar is the primary instrument used for detecting enemy platforms today.Radar detects a target by clocking time taken by a known pulse of electromagnetic energy to get to the target and return. Radar cross section (RCS) is the measure of reflective strength of a target. Reducing the RCS of a platform implies its late detection, used to capitalize on surprise and initiative. RCS is also important for survivability evaluation since most modern weapons use installed radars during final engagement phase. As a result, RCS of a warship has transformed into a very important design factor for stealth to achieve surprise, initiative and survivability. Thus accurate RCS determination and RCS reduction are matters of extreme importance. The purpose of this study is to provide an understanding RCS reduction and RCS determination methods used on warships today. In doing so, this study will discuss importance of RCS, radar fundamentals and RCS basics, RCS reduction and RCS determination methods. It will also present hindrances in optimizing RCSR on warships, impact of these hindrances on navies around the world, and comment on possible remedies to these hindrances.