Multirole airborne radar computer evolution

The use of AESA antennas (Active Electronically Scanned Array) in airborne radars is a breakthrough in terms of operational capabilities, compared to classic radars working with PESA antennas (Passive Electronically Scanned Array). Multi-chanel receivers allow designers to use more complex and more sophisticated algorithms. Along with the improvements of RF sensors (Radio Frequency), we assist in a strong increase of sampling frequencies on the output of reception channels. These improvements lead to an important increase of computing power needed in numeric computers that operate on the received signals. In this article, we present an efficient solution in term of computer architecture, basing on few examples requiring a lot of computing capabilities such as the SAR-UHR (Synthetic Aperture Radar Ultra High Resolution), the ABF (Adaptive Beam Forming) and the STAP (Spatial Time Adaptive Processing).