A strategy to make future naval air surveillance radars more affordable

While the performance of modern radars has improved dramatically, the associated costs of acquisition and operation have also risen sharply. In many cases, the procurement costs of the latest state-of-the art systems far exceed current budgetary constraints. In an effort to develop guidelines for more cost effective radar systems, the NRL Radar Division has investigated various techniques as a way of reducing costs while still maintaining as close as possible the original system performance and satisfying the operational requirements. Acquisition cost savings for the techniques studied range from 5% to 30%.