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Defense Intelligence Reference Document Detection And High Resolution Tracking Of Vehicles At Hypersonic

Defense Intelligence Agency · 46 pages · text from the file's own layer

This Defense Intelligence Reference Document from the Defense Intelligence Agency, dated 20 November 2010, was one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2010 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications (AAWSA) Program. It reviews the theory of subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic flow. It then compares electromagnetic, optical, and acoustic and seismic methods for detecting and tracking hypersonic objects, and it makes four recommendations for progress over the next 30 years.

  • p. 19 …On Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, Altar tracks reentry vehicles at distances of up to…
  • p. 30 …entered the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and exploded near Baja California. The bolide…
  • p. 31 …space shuttle Discovery, STS-42, over the Pacific Ocean and landing at Edwards Air Force Base…
  • p. 34 …7 over the Pacific Ocean, designed as a hypersonic cruise vehicle. Efforts to disguise aircraft through…
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RADAR systems are widely used for aircraft surveillance and can detect the distance to
objects and the position of an object (through triangulation); with Doppler RADAR, the
velocity can be directly measured. RADAR does have limitations. While low-frequency
RADAR systems are capable of following the curvature of the earth, the long wavelength of
this energy makes it difficult to resolve small objects. Higher frequency RADAR tends to be
more "line of sight." Since it depends upon reflected energy, several problems are
highlighted by the RADAR Equation:
(15)
In this equation, Ptransmrtted represents the transmitted power, Prec:eived the received power, G
the transmitting antenna gain, A the aperture area of the receiving antenna, a the RADAR
cross section, F the pattern propagation factor, and Rt and Rr are the distance from the
transmitter to the target and the target to the receiver, respectively. If the RADAR
transmitter and receiver are in the same unit, the power returned as a reflection from a
target decreases as R4 . This means that energy received in reflected energy decreases by
94% every time the distance to the target is doubled.
RADAR depends upon the reflection of electromagnetic waves off of a target's surface,
thereby making objects with a small RADAR cross section difficult to detect (e.g., stealth
aircraft). Atmospheric phenomenon, including inversions and turbulence, can lead to
interference with RADAR reflections. Even with these limitations, RADAR is widely used to
monitor high-speed aircraft, meteors, and man-made objects reentering the atmosphere
from Earth orbit.
Velocity Vector
Radar Dish
Hypersonic Vehicle
'+-----'--I1--t-H--t--tt-~~=n;3)Radial direction
/ Rotat
Pedei
Reflected Energy Transmitted Energy
R = radial distance
Figure 10. Schematic of a RADAR System.
Doppler RADAR
Doppler RADAR systems yield velocity data for a target. Pulsed RADAR systems send out a
short burst of high-frequency radiation that is reflected from a target. The RADAR unit
processes the delay time between the transmitted pulse and the received echo to determine
the range or distance to the target. The energy reflected from the target is, however,
14
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Report, from the dia collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 46 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.