Drone detection by Ku-band battlefield radar

The intensive research and development efforts in the area of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) detection for security applications is observed in the last decade. The published research results are focused on applications in particular domains (e.g. acoustic, ultrasonic, optical, infrared, radiofrequency…) whereas the probability characteristics for each assumed application evaluation are needed. This paper includes the theoretical analysis of battlefield pulse radar detection probability and range for small UAV. The interdependence between Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and small UAV Radar Cross Section (RCS) is derived. The results of dynamic flight test series conducted to evaluate the detection performance of three drone size categories by pulse Ku-band short range battlefield radar are presented. Some dependences of the SNR and probability of detection on the drone sizes are determined.