Local urban battlefield surveillance - Annual report 2007

Authors:

  • Stefan Nilsson
  • Magnus Gustafsson
  • Mikael Karlsson
  • Jan Kjellgren
  • Torleif Martin
  • Ain Sume
  • Anders Örbom

Publish date: 2008-01-07

Report number: FOI-R--2358--SE

Pages: 48

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • “see-through-the-wall”
  • wall penetration
  • FMCW
  • monopulse radar
  • wave-guide
  • antennas
  • urban
  • battlefield surveillance

Abstract

This annual report describes the activities of the first year and the most important results produced in the two-year Armed Forces' project Local Urban Battlefield Surveillance. The project is aimed at developing and evaluating various hand-held Doppler-based radar system concepts for the urban soldier, with the capacity to see through walls, but also intended for short-range surveillance. In the first year an antenna study has been made where various antenna solutions are commented. Among several conceivable antenna solutions the study recommends that a multi-channel waveguide antenna be considered for the system work. A main task in the year has been to evaluate a hand-held wall-penetrating system concept consisting of a multi-channel FMCW monopulse radar. A conclusion is that for materials with high transmission attenuation but of moderate thickness, e.g. concrete, a radar frequency of 10 GHz seems reasonable. A patch antenna having a relative bandwidth of 10% is often not sufficient to meet the requirement for range resolution but antennas with higher bandwidths are required. Another conclusion is that simultaneous good range and velocity resolutions, beyond the limits with conventional signal processing, require research and development concerning signal processing with prolonged integration time. Another calculation study has shown that dielectric-filled waveguide antennas have good potential for functioning in a two-dimensional monopulse system for wall penetrating applications. The condition is that the filling material has the same permittivity as the wall material. The relative bandwidth becomes more than 40% (7-10.6 GHz).