Airborne clutter performance of randomized radar waveforms

The performance of randomized and conventional waveform for airborne radars in cluttered environments is compared. We compute the clutter effects on randomized waveform by direct integration of the cross-ambiguity function with the unfolded clutter density function. It is concluded that, when available system resources are equalized, randomized waveform cannot compete with conventional waveforms in high clutter situations, though their performance is superior in low or zero clutter situations. The properties of specific spread spectrum codes that would yield superior performance are investigated as are other considerations with differential impact on conventional and randomized waveforms.< >