The Null Filter Mobile Radar Feasibility Study

The investigation of the Null Filter Mobile Radar (NFMRAD) by state-of-the-art LSI microelectronic hardware was performed. The hardware required for a representative implementation of NFMRAD was investigated and critical hardware items were identified. It was found that the high-precision, high-rate complex multipliers required at each channel of NFMRAD had the major impact on system cost. For the parameters considered in this study, these multipliers add an incremental cost of approximately 300 thousand dollars compared with a more conventional radar design approach. It was found that for the parameters of NFMRAD considered in this study, peak antenna sidelobes of -25 to -30 dB can provide adequate sidelobe clutter suppression for all but severe radar scenarios. A jammer nulling algorithm that takes advantage of the parallel receiving channels of NFMRAD was analyzed and found to work well against a single jammer. An alternate approach to NFMRAD was suggested that could provide MTI and an ECCM capability with a substantial reduction in price below the price of the full NFMRAD implementation. (Author)