Unattended/minimally attended radar study. Volume 2: 2-D (unattended) radar

The purpose of the Unattended/Minimally Attended Radar Study was to determine the exploratory and advanced development activities necessary to support the development of Unattended (2-d) and Minimally Attended (3-D) Radars. Volume 2 describes the several radar concepts that were considered for the 2-D unattended role, and the selection of the recommended design. The 2-D Radar provides detection of low-flying aircraft to 60 nmi. The principle design ground rules include extremely high reliability and ease of maintenance, low life cycle cost, and very low prime power. The study concludes the technology is available in 1977 to permit the design and implementation of radars which can operate unattended for periods of up to three months (with 90% confidence of full performance). The recommended design is an L-band cylindrical array, using either an analog or a digital signal processor and a distributed data processor. Prime power usage is from 400 W to slightly more than 1 kW, depending on the implementation scheme selected.