Performance analysis of a multifunction radar concept

An important issue in the concept definition of future target identification (ID) radar is the choice between using dedicated separate surveillance and ID radars or using a multifunction radar that shares resources between the two functions. The results of a study of this question are presented here. A computer simulation of a generic future radar/ID system which includes detailed modeling of the radar tracking, correlation, and multiple-radar tracking logic is run against a postulated scenario to evaluate the surveillance and ID performances of each concept. The results establish that a multifunction array radar performing target identification achieves surveillance performance that is only modestly degraded from that of a dedicated radar, as measured by numbers of targets in track. The multifunction array radar has ID performance that is within approximately 5% of the dedicated ID only radar in terms of the number of target tracks to complete the ID process.