SMART-L multibeam radar

This paper highlights some aspects of the SMART-L three-dimensional long-range surveillance radar system. In particular attention is paid to the architecture of the digital beamforming-on-receive that makes this radar one of the first operational systems based on such a beamforming procedure. Measuring the elevation of aircraft flying low over sea requires special precautions to deal with multipsth propagation effects. Aspects of miniaturishg the hardware intensive solution and processing of the antenna arrays are discussed. Also another feature of prime relevance of the design of the radar, being the medium PRF waveform, is addressed.