Radio Frequency Missile Seekers based on Multibeam Radar Systems

Multibeam radar (MBR) systems are Radio Frequency (RF) sensors capable of providing multiple simultaneous functions in different directions by transmitting multiple dedicated simultaneous antenna beams, each one carrying dedicated radar resources and waveform properties (i.e. range resolution, maximum unambiguous range, detection range etc etc).

MBR is a technique based on waveform diversity that requires a set of orthogonal waveforms on transmit in order to generate multiple channels in transmission and extract them efficiently at the receiver with digital signal processing. The level of isolation between channels is a key MBR performance parameter determined by the orthogonal properties of the waveforms used on transmit. The better the channel isolation the better the MBR performance.

 The successful candidate will continue our investigation on the application of MBR radars to missile RF seeker and, in particular, develop MBR-based techniques that can provide the RF seeker with dedicated channels that can be used for communications tasks. The provision of communications beams in MBR will allow information exchange between a missile and other co-deployed supporting platforms, such as swarms of drones, and ultimately has the potential to significantly improve prosecution and platform protection performance.

The use of a common active antenna aperture for simultaneous operation of radar and communications functions can reduce the overall size, weight and power of the hardware, which may be particularly important on a small platform. In order to achieve this, suitable radar and communications co-existence techniques and waveforms will be proposed and investigated that will allow the seeker to operate simultaneously in communications and radar modes.