Tracking of a naval target with a dual-band photonic-based coherent radar system

Results from a field trial campaign of a fully coherent dual band radar system based on a single photonic-assisted transceiver are presented and discussed. The proposed architecture allows independent and simultaneous generation of radar signals in the S- and X-band, and their detection exploiting a single low sample rate analog to digital converter. Moreover the sharing of a single transceiver for both the frequency bands reduce the system cost and complexity and provides a perfect coherence among the generated waveforms. The tracking of a small vessel in an operative maritime scenario, compared wit reference data from a GPS, confirms the effectiveness of the developed system. The performance in the two bands are also discussed and compared with the theoretical model.