A New Design Approach for Search/MFR AESA Radars

The standard approach to design a Search/Multifunction AESA radar is to consider, together with the transmitted energy, an AESA antenna with a narrow azimuth beam to get a high antenna gain, a good azimuth measurement accuracy, and a good azimuth discrimination. The narrow beam solution implies an AESA antenna with many TRMs and often, due to the high AESA antenna cost, the radar will utilize the AESA over a rotating pedestal to cover 360°. Even if in free space the radar performances can be quite good, the rotating antenna solution will introduce several operational problems. The new design approach for Search/MFR AESA radar, that will be illustrated in detail, will allow the realization of advanced Search/MFR AESA radars based on 4 fixed AESA antenna faces, capable of providing better performances at a lower cost respect to the rotating antenna solution.