Session 2: Current State of Military Investment in PAR

1
Session 2 Current State of Military Investment
in PAR

• Panel Lead Dr. Jeffrey Herd (MIT LL)
• Panelists Dr. Richard Wittstruck, U.S. Army PEO
  IEWS
• Dr. Michael Pollock, Office of Naval
  Research
• Mr. Mark Longbrake, Air Force Research Lab
  
• Panel Time Slot 1015 1145 on Thursday,
  October 11, 2007
• Panel Presentations
• Background and Session Objectives, J. Herd
• Armys Digital Array Radars, R. Wittstruck
• RD in Navys Phased Array Radar Program, M.
  Pollock
• AF Research into PAR Antenna Design, M. Longbrake
• Discussion

2
Objectives of the Session

1. Provide a current snapshot of military
   investments in phased array radars
2. Identify emerging technologies and concepts from
   military investments that are relevant to MPAR
3. Identify technology gaps that must be addressed
   directly to meet MPAR needs
4. Identify collaborative opportunities to jointly
   increase procurement quantities and reduce cost

3
National Air Surveillance Infrastructure
Today
Timeline and Capabilities
?
ASR-9
ARSR-4
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020
2030

• Aging mechanically scanned radars
• 8 unique types for 4 different missions
• Over 500 total with redundant spatial coverage

4
National Air Surveillance Infrastructure
Today
MPAR
ASR-9
ARSR-4

• Aging mechanically scanned radars
• 8 unique types for 4 different missions
• Over 500 total with redundant spatial coverage

• State-of-the-art active phased array radars
• 1 type for all missions Multifunction Phased
  Array Radar (MPAR)
• 334 MPARs replace 510 legacy radars

5
Current Surveillance Radar Capabilities
Maximum Range for Detection of 1m2 Target Required Coverage Range Altitude Required Coverage Range Altitude Angular Resol. Az El Angular Resol. Az El Waveform Scan Period
Terminal Area Aircraft Surveillance (ASR-9/11) 60 nmi 60 nm 20,000' 1.4? 5o gt18 pulses PRI 0.001 sec 5 sec
En Route Aircraft Surveillance (ARSR-4) 205 nmi 250 nm 60,000' 1.4? 2.0? gt10 pulses PRI 0.001 sec 12 sec
Terminal Area Weather (TDWR) 212 nmi 60 nmi 20,000' 1? 0.5? 50 pulses PRI 0.001 sec 180 sec
En Route Weather (NEXRAD) 225 nmi 250 nmi 50,000' 1? 1? 50 pulses PRI 0.001 sec gt240 sec

• Weather surveillance drives radar power and
  aperture size
• Aircraft surveillance drives volume scan update
  rates

6
Notional Full-Scale MPAR Parameters

• Active Array (planar, 4 faces)
• Diameter 8 m
• TR elements/face 20,000
• Dual polarization
• Beamwidth 0.7? (broadside)
• Gain gt 46 dB
• Transmit/Receive Modules
• Wavelength 10 cm (2.72.9 GHz)
• Bandwidth/channel 1 MHz
• Frequency channels 3
• Pulse length 30 ?s
• Peak power/element 2 W
• Architecture
• Multiple independent beam clusters

Aircraft Surveillance
Non cooperative target tracking and
characterization
Weather Surveillance

• Notional MPAR NAS system (167 full-scale, 167
  terminal area) requires gt 16 million active T/R
  elements

7
Critical Challenges and Enablers

• Challenges
• Ultra-low cost array ( 50k / m2 at S-band)
• Scalable aperture sizes
• Open architecture
• Low operations and maintenance costs
• Enablers
• Highly integrated low power T/R chips
• Scalable array sub-panels
• Air cooled array
• Design for manufacturability
• High volume procurement

8
Questions for Discussion

• How will differences in mission requirements
  impact tech-transfer and collaboration?
• Peak power
• Bandwidth
• Operating frequency
• Production volume
• Mil-spec vs commercial standards
• U.S. vs overseas manufacturing
• What collaborative opportunities exist to jointly
  increase procurement quantities and reduce cost?
• How can we best determine an optimum solution for
  combined NWS, FAA, DHS, and DoD needs?