A modern approach to radar performance analysis and field validation

Radar systems are facing increasingly demanding requirements in challenging environments, including natural and man-made interference, and this drives the complexity of their functions. Through the phases of radar system manufacture, there is a request for radar performance assessment: first, by prediction and modeling, under a variety of scenarios and radar parameters options; then, by live data capture and interpretation, during and after field trials. All the more, a modern radar manufacturer needs not only a well established set of procedures for analysis and test but also an open set of software tools to meet the diverse needs from analysts, design engineers, field technicians and operators. Alenia Defense, Radar Systems Division, is putting an effort in this area, in two respects: (a) in standardizing the prediction models and related software tools, and (b) in the area of data capture, display and analysis at the site. Two modern software tools have been developed to this purpose, namely: the Radar Work Station (RWS) and the portable Recording Interactive System for Maintenance and Analysis (PRISMA), both characterized by friendly interfaces, development and use on PC platform under standard environments