First Results with Ka-Band Bistatic Radar for Space Domain Awareness

The Milli-Meter Wave (MMW) radar has the best metric accuracy and resolution among the ground-based radars in the Reagan Test Site located at Kwajalein Atoll. In addition to supporting ballistic missile defense, MMW has a long-standing role of enhancing Space Domain Awareness by tracking satellites in Low Earth Orbit and generating wideband radar imagery. Over the years, many system upgrades have increased MMW's maximum range by almost an order of magnitude relative to its initial operational capability. In this paper, we report on efforts to increase MMW's range by another factor of two through bistatic operation with radio astronomy dishes in Australia. An initial collection by NATO's SET-340 panel yielded target detections on a geostationary satellite with about 8.8 dB higher signal-to-noise ratio than monostatic operations. Coherent integration of up to 16384 pulses and basic characterization capability were also demonstrated with the bistatic data. The SET-340 Research Task Group will continue refining bistatic operations with MMW to extend its best-in-class metrics and imaging to longer ranges and smaller objects.