Tracking filters for multiple-platform radar integration

The Kalman filter is the optimum tracking filter regardless of whether or not radar detections are made from single or multiple platforms. The performance of the Kalman filter has been simulated for various radar-target geometries. An error criterion involving the Mahalanobis distance function is used to detect target maneuvers, and an interactive scheme based on this criterion is used to increase the error covariance matrix to its proper value. Attempts to replace the Kalman filter with a simple filter with comparable performance have not been productive. The basic reason behind this difficulty is that accurate position and velocity estimates (obtainable by triangulation from different platforms) require the processing of position and velocity covariance matrices. Since both matrices must be saved and updated, a simple filter does not seem possible.