Acousto-optic range-Doppler processor for radar insertion

This paper describes an advanced AO range-Doppler processor and the MICOM radar system targeted for insertion under the ARPA TOPS program. The maturity of AO technology, realized through more than a decade of advanced laboratory and prototype field testing, makes this technology an attractive solution to future ground-based air defense radar systems being developed by MICOM. It is anticipated that convincing demonstrations of this technology in challenging field conditions will result in greater user acceptance and systems development support in the future. After fabrication and initial testing in a laboratory environment, the AO range-Doppler processor will be integrated into the MICOM radar at a facility at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. Initial testing of this integrated system will be conducted using the built-in digital test target generator, which provides a diagnostic clutter-free test target having a large signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). At this point, the system will be compared with the all-digital processing in terms of compression gain, SNR performance, linearity, dynamic range, and resolution in range and Doppler. Final testing under this TOPS program will then proceed with real target and clutter environments.