On the gain in recognition performance due to the addition of polarisation in an X-band High Range Resolution radar evaluated for F-18 and F-35 targets using asymptotic EM techniques

This paper addresses the prediction of the maximum gain in recognition performance of a High Range Resolution (HRR) X-band radar when use is made of the full polarisation matrix, as compared to the linear polarisations. The study was conducted for the F-35 and FA-18F. Use is made of the information theoretic concept of mutual information (MI) to perform this analysis. Returns from the targets were simulated using an asymptotic RCS prediction code. The information content of the two targets is compared for various polarisations.