Refining Radar Architectures: Multichannel Rotary Joints for Surveillance Radars

Surveillance radars, i.e., radars for air-traffic control, air defense, missile tracking, and weather observation, have undergone major advancements over their approximately 80-year history. This development has resulted in five fundamental system architectures that differ mainly in their antenna configuration: the rotating reflector antenna, the rotating passive electronically steered antenna (PESA), the stationary PESA, the rotating active electronically steered antenna (AESA), and the stationary AESA. The development of these architectures may be viewed as an evolutionary progression, with each representing a distinct stage of evolution.