Military Radars
Military Radars
Military Radars
about distant objects by transmitting electromagnetic waves at them and analyzing the
echoes. Radar has been employed on the ground, in air, on the sea and in space. Radar
finds a number of applications such as in airport traffic control, military purposes, coastal
navigation, meteorology and mapping etc. The development of the radar technology took
place during the World War II in which it was used for detecting the approaching aircraft
and then later for many other purposes which finally led to the development of advanced
military radars being used these days. Military radars have a highly specialized design to
MILITARY RADARS
INTRODUCTION
Military radar should be an early warning, altering along with weapon control functions.
It is specially designed to be highly mobile and should be such that it can be deployed
within minutes.
Military radar minimizes mutual interference of tasks of both air defenders and friendly
air space users. This will result in an increased effectiveness of the combined combat
operations. The command and control capabilities of the radar in combination with an
effective ground based air defence provide maximum operational effectiveness with a
safe, efficient and flexible use of the air space. The increased operational effectiveness is
Typical military radar has the following advanced features and benefits: -
Short and fast reaction time between target detection and ready to fire moment.
Easy to operate and hence low manning requirements and stress reduction under
severe conditions.
Flexible weapon integration, and unlimited number of single air defence weapons can
High resolution, which gives excellent target discrimination and accurate tracking.
During the short time when the targets are exposed accurate data must be obtained. A
high antenna rotational speed assures early target detection and a high data update rate
improve the suppression of rain clutter, provision exists to change to circular polarization
1) Radargroup
The radargroup consists of antenna, mast unit, remote control, high tension unit, LO/AFC
The transmitter and receiver forms the active part of the system. The integrated radar/IFF
antenna is fitted on the collapsible mast, mounted on the container. The container is
2) Shelter
Shelter contains display unit, processor unit, TV monitor, colour PPI (Plan Position
indicator), IFF control unit, air conditioner, battery charger with battery, Radio set with
antenna for data link, radio set with antenna for voice transmission i.e. communication,
3) Motor generator
The motor generator supplies the power to the whole radar system.
SETS OF TERMINAL EQUIPMENT
These are the sets of lightweight man portable units, which can be easily be stacked
transmitted target data. The TDR itself is intelligent, it performs parallax correction,
threat evaluation and it displays the result in a threat sequence, enabling the weapon
A radio receiver or LCA (with standard 2 wire telephone line) can be used to receive
target data. In principle any VHF-FM radio receiver can be used as a part of the terminal
equipment set. In case line connection is applied, no radio receiver is required. An LCA
The operator’s main task is to watch the PPI (Plan Position Indicator) display, which
presents only moving targets in the normal mode (MTI-MODE). Detected target can be
assigned with the joystick controlled order marker to initiate target tracking. Target
tracking is started and a track marker appears over the target echo. A label is displayed
near the track marker. The system computer in the processor unit processes data on this
tracked target. When an aircraft does not respond to the IFF interrogation it is considered
to be unknown.
SYSTEM FUNCTIONS
The main task of the radar is to provide individual weapon systems, after an alert, with
accurate target data. Therefore, the system has to perform certain functions as shown in
Detection
The detection function is supported by the search radar, the MTI processor and the PPI.
On the PPI all moving targets, even those flying at low radial speeds, are displayed to the
operator.
After target detection a track is initiated by indicating the target video with the joystick
controlled order marker. The computer starts generating a track on the basis of the
joystick data. A target track marker is displayed on the PPI over the target echo. Search
radar information is gathered and extracted by video extractor as plots. The computer
evaluates the plot information, determines the position and speed of the target and
Identification
The data of the tracked targets is automatically converted to X and Y grid co-ordinates,
with respect to preset co-ordinates of the radar location. The data is included in digital
data message made up for all targets being tracked. The computer-originated message is
IFF Alarm
The IFF alarm function alerts the operator that the IFF code setting has to be changed.
The valid code is displayed to the operator. The IFF codes and their validity period are
Target Decoding
The target information is received and decoded. In case no, or disturbed target
Parallax Correction
The parallax correction function is performed by the TDR. Through this function the
target data received in the X and Y co-ordinates is transferred into polar co-ordinates,
Threat Evaluation
The data of the targets received is processed by a threat evaluation program, built in to
the TDR. This program places all the targets in a sequence according to their threat
priority and displays the result (azimuth angle of four most threatening targets) as an
engagement advice.
FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION OF RADAR SUBSYSTEM
The detection of air targets is accomplished by the search radar, the video processor and
the colour PPI unit. The colour PPI unit provides the presentation of all moving targets
The search radar is pulse Doppler radar (also called MTI radar) i.e. it is capable of
distinguishing between the echo from a fixed target and that of a moving target. The
echoes from fixed target are eliminated, so that the echoes from the moving targets are
The great advantage of this is that it is possible to distinguish a moving target among a
large number of fixed targets, even when the echoes from these fixed targets are much
stronger. To achieve this the search radar makes use of the Doppler effect, if the target
having a certain radial speed with respect to the search antenna is hit by a series of
transmitter pulses from the search radar antenna, the change in range between this target
and antenna is expressed by successive echo pulses in phase shifts with respect to the
For moving targets the phase difference from echo pulse to echo pulse is continually
subject to change, whereas for fixed targets this is a constant. The distinction between the
echo signals from a fixed target and moving target is obtained by detecting the above
phase differences.
Mains HT UNIT
Supply
High Voltage
Supply
ANTENNA
TRANSMITTER UNIT
VIDEO
Sub-
Modulator Modulator PROCESSOR
AFC Control
Magnetron Circuit
BJD
RECEIVER UNIT
Image
Rejection Linear PPI
LO+AFC UNIT Mixer Detector UNIT
1) HT Unit
The high tension unit converts the phase mains voltage into a DC supply voltage of about
2) Transmitter Unit
a) Modulator
An amplifier which amplifies the pulses from the video processor, a thyratron for
multivibrator.
• Pulse Unit
The pulse unit comprises of pulse shaping network and pulse transformer.
The pulse discharge of the pulse- shaping network will occur only if the magnetron
The thyratron diodes ensure that the remaining negative voltage, caused by the mismatch,
If the mismatch is too large, capacitor is charged by the discharge current to such an
extent that relay (reflection coefficient too high) is activated. This relay switches off the
high voltage.
b) Magnetron
by high voltage pulses, whereupon it produces band pulses. The generated RF pulses are
The PRF of the magnetron pulses is determined by the synchronization circuit in the
video processor, which applies start pulses to the sub-modulator of the transmitter unit.
This sub modulator issues start pulses of suitable amplitude to trigger the thyratron in the
modulator. On being triggered the modulator, which is supplied by the high tension unit,
between certain limits. This tuning mechanism is operated by an electric motor being part
of AFC control circuit. Together with circuits in LO+AFC unit, a frequency control loop
is created, thus maintaining a frequency difference i.e. the intermediate frequency of the
receiver between the output frequency of the SSLO and the magnetron output frequency.
The magnetron unit comprises a coaxial tunable magnetron, servo motor driving an
adjustable plunger.
Thyratron Magnetron
Transmitter Unit
3) LO+AFC Unit
The LO+AFC unit determines the frequency of the transmitted radar pulses. It comprises
of: -
2) AFC discriminator
3) Solid State Local Oscillator (SSLO)
The SSLO generates a very stable low power RF signal lower than the desired transmitter
frequency. This signal is split in two branches and distributed as local oscillator signal to
two mixers.
These are: -
The lock pulse mixer mixes the SSLO signal with a fraction of the magnetron power. The
mixer output consists of AFC lock pulse, provided that the magnetron is correctly tuned.
The AFC lock pulses are applied to an AFC discriminator, which checks their frequency.
If the frequency of the AFC lock pulses is unequal to IF, a positive or negative control
voltage for the AFC control circuit in the transmitter unit is developed, to force the
magnetron frequency to the desired value. Thus the AFC loop is closed.
The AFC lock pulses are also applied to COHO. The COHO outputs a signal with a
frequency of AFC lock pulse, and is synchronized with the phase of each transmitter
pulse. In this way a phase reference signal is obtained required by the phase sensitive
4) Receiver Unit
The receiver unit converts the received RF echo signals to IF level and detects the IF
signals. By detecting the IF signals in two different ways, two receiver channels are
image rejection mixer mixes the amplified signals with the SSLO signal, to obtain an IF
signal. After amplification the IF signal is split into two branches viz. a MTI channel and
a linear channel. A fraction of amplified received signal is branched off and applied to
In the MTI channel, the IF signal is amplified again by the MTI main amplifier, and
applied to the Phase Sensitive Detector (PSD). The second signal applied to the PSD is
The output of the PSD is the function of the phase difference between the two inputs to
the PSD. The polarity pulses indicate whether the phase difference is positive or negative.
The phase differences between the COHO signal and IF echo signals from a fixed target
is constant whereas those between the COHO signals and IF echo signals from a moving
In the linear channel, the IF signal is amplified again by the linear main amplifier and
subsequently applied to the linear detector. The linear detector output signals are passed
5) Antenna
The search antenna is a parabolic reflector, rotating with a high speed. In the focus of the
reflector is a radiator, which emits the RF pulses, and which receives the RF echo pulses.
In the waveguide is the polarization shifter, which causes the polarization of the RF
The video processor processes the MTI video from the MTI receiver channel, to make the
7) Protection Units
There are some protection units such as arc sensor to protect the magnetron against arcing
CONCLUSION
Military radars are one of the most important requirements during the wartime, which can
be used for early detection of ballistic missile and also for accurate target detection and
firing. Radar system discussed here has a built in threat evaluation program which
automatically puts the target in a threat sequence, and advises the weapon crew which
target can be engaged first. Most essential, the target data is available to the weapon crew
in time, so the can prepare themselves to engage the ‘best’ target for their specific
weapon location.
maintenance is required and thus the system life cycle costs can be kept low.
REFERENCES