Autonomous synchronization of a bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system

An airborne bistatic radar synchronization apparatus and process is presented which receives clutter point echo returns from the bistatic radar receiver on a penetrator aircraft, and determines therefrom the location of the illuminator aircraft without the need of receiving direct path signals from the radar transmitter on board the illuminator aircraft. Once the state of the illuminator aircraft (position and velocity) has been determined, the estimate of the illuminator state may be refined using direct path data. Finally, a target location algorithm is applied to bistatic target echo returns to calculate an equivalent monostatic range for a desired target, and provide an estimate of the location of the target.