NORMA - A noise radar network for covert border surveillance

Given the nature of current evolving threats, border security has become of paramount importance both in civilian and military application. In particular, both air and maritime borders are threatened by unlawful activities which employ new technologies and require the use of more effective surveillance sensors. The solution proposed within the NORMA project consists of a network of noise radar with covert and LPI (Low Probability of intercept) surveillance capabilities. The system will be also designed to achieve low RCS and high resolution range profile measurements. Particularly, the multistatic and MIMO imaging capabilities of the system allow the target to be observed at different viewing angles providing full shape RCS and imaging and consequently better classification and recognition performance. An interferometric mode will be available to achieve enhanced cross range resolution. A technological demonstrator composed of two noise imaging radars in a network will be designed and developed. A system demonstration to assess the performance of the proposed solutions will be performed at during the third year of the project. The present paper aims at defining the noise radar network with some considerations about the noise waveworms that will be used. This research was sponsored [in part] by the NATO Science for Peace and Security Programme under grant G5465.