Numerical applications of the physical optics approach for the calculation of radar cross sections of convex perfect scatterers

Factors which determine the way in which an aircraft surface should be divided into geometrically simple panels, used in computerized calculation of radar cross sections, are discussed. An algorithm which evaluates the monostatic return from a planar panel was tested. Accuracy depends on panel size, shape and orientation, the length of the projection of the panel in the direction of radiation, and the difference in position between the true surface panel and the approximating plane panel. The computation speed of the computer program allows a structure with 100,000 panels to be processed in 2 min.