Radar Systems and Challenges for C-UAV

Nowadays, unconventional Low Slow and Small (LSS) air threats pose serious challenges that cause deep concerns among military and civilian security organizations. Consequently, there is a high demand for robust and reliable counter small unmanned aerial vehicles (C-sUAV) solutions. However, traditional air defence systems may be unable to detect, identify and defeat some types of potentially hostile UAVs. Detection challenges such as small RCS values of air targets, unconventional flight patterns in low airspaces, terrain masking effects, or complex urban environments lead to high false alarm rates. Current C-sUAV systems in the market use improved radar components, originally either considered for VSHORAD (Very Short Air Defence) radar, battlefield radar, bird detection radar, perimeter surveillance radar, or high-resolution short-range radar. According to three NATO industrial advisory group (NIAG) studies [1]–[3], there is a strong need for improvement of the currently available C-sUAV systems and for the development of second generation robust and automated sense and warn systems. In addition, the evolution of advanced LSS air threats such as signature reduced drones or swarms as well as new scenarios [4] have to be considered in the development of the second generation. Therefore, many radar research activities on C-sUAV can be observed worldwide, for example research on passive radar, active multi-static radar, MIMO-radar, cognitive radar, or air-to-air radar. This article discusses current radar systems, challenges, and some radar research activities related to C-sUAV.