كيف سيحلون التداخل بينه و بين الرادار
سألت السؤال هذا لمهندس طيران امريكي متقاعد كان يعمل في القوات الجوية الاميكية تخصص رادارات و هذا كان جوابه:
"No way to tell outside of actual combat situations. The secret for any ECM system's effectiveness lies in the digital radio freq memory (DRFM) sub-system.
So for interested readers who may not know what is DRFM...
The above is an illustration of a bare bones basic radar pulse. This is as basic and simple as you can get to a functional signal.
Each pulse have two time stamps of/from: leading edge and trailing edge.
It is from these time stamps that we use to calculate these vital target resolutions:
- Altitude
- Speed
- Heading
- Aspect angle
Because of these two time stamps, each pulse have a characteristic call 'finite pulse length'. Or to put it another way, each pulse is a finite packet of energy.
The above illustration also shows a 'pulse train'. We see three pulses in regular spacing of each other. That is the pulse repetition interval (PRI). The PRI must be measured from either leading edge to leading edge, or from trailing edge to trailing edge. Never from leading to trailing.
In basic radar detection, we sent a pulse train of 1000 very basic pulses, for example. This pulse train impact the target and because of atmospheric attenuation (losses) both ways, we received 600 echo pulses. Of the next pulse train of 1000 pulses, the target entered an area of clear sky so we received 800 echo pulses. Of the next pulse train of 1000 pulses, a storm cloud got in the way so we received 200 echo pulses.
600
800
200
Which reception is the most probable that there is a target out there ? The 800 echo pulses, of course. But the operational reality is that the system takes in all three and averages them out to give us a more mathematically reasonable guess that there is a target out there. It is very much a guess, an educated guess, when we have to deal with factors beyond our control, such as the atmosphere.
There are pulse trains in ordinary weather radars that runs in the tens of thousands of pulses. The higher the freq employed, the easier it is to create these high pulse counts per pulse train, giving us very accurate target information. The downside is that precisely because of finite pulse length, there is less energy per pulse on target, making the signal's journey -- from radar to target and the echo from target back to the radar -- very vulnerable to interference.
So for military purposes, how can we make it more difficult for the opposition to employ countermeasures ? We alter the characteristics of the pulse train.
For the above illustration, we have modification of only the PRI.
The first two -- stable and stagger -- predictable. Any countermeasure tactic using DRFM can easily remember this pulse train and create an interference signal. The resources used for this will be minimal.
The last two -- jitter and dwell/switch -- can be as unpredictable as the seeking radar is designed for. The resource require for these two tactics will be much greater than stable and stagger. The seeking radar must remember each pulse train's characteristics to recognize the echo signals, which should have the same characteristics.
Now imagine a military class radar transmitting pulse trains of 100,000 (or more) pulses with modifications to the all the elements that make up a pulse, see first illustration.
DRFM is a burden for both seeker and target. The seeking radar must remember each pulse train transmitted. The target that employs DRFM countermeasure must analyze each pulse train and attempt to create an interference signal. It must also attempt to predict what the next pulse train
MAY BE like in order to anticipate that next pulse train.
This is where the ASTOR claimed to have:
DSOR/DRFM and PRI Predictor subsystems
If the pulse train generation sub-system is secret in the seeking radar, we can be assured that for the ASTOR, how it samples and generate interference signals in its PRI predictor method is also secret.
Given the well known potential of AESA radars out there, how effective is the ASTOR against a tier-one adversary like US is unknown. The longer the seeking transmission, in both duration and pulse trains, the better it is for the target to generate a good interference signal. Simple enough, more signals to sample and analyze.
But that is not how AESA operates. An AESA system often operates in bursts with more than just PRI modification. An AESA system can modify amplitude, freq, and width
PER PULSE and can remember them all from train to train, and there is no fixed interval between trains.
The
DEDICATED use of an AESA antenna for ECM purposes. We should not confine AESA into only radar usage, even though the radar is always a popular subject.
The active electronic scanning array (AESA) is essentially an antenna, just like the simple monopole antenna on your car for radio reception. There is such a thing as a monopole radar system: wide band and omni directional.
The advantages of an AESA antenna dedicated to ECM are just as great as dedicated to radar detection. With an AESA antenna, the ECM system can target specific sources instead of just wide area broadcast of its interference signal, like the current ECM tactics today, and we know that wide area broadcast interferes with friendlies as well as hostiles. An AESA system that manages and coordinates ECM pods can target individual hostile sites on the ground, for example, without affecting friendly ground forces nearby."
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