The ONERA Compact Ka-SAR

A concept of low-size and low-weight imaging Ka-Band radar is presented in this paper. This radar is embedded into an under-wing pod. This radar particularities are a low-size, a low-weight and a low-cost basis, making this radar suitable for future integration on board small vehicles, such as UAV. The radar definition and specifications will be detailed, together with the results obtained from in flight campaigns executed on 2006 and 2007. This SAR radar has been developed and built to fly on board an UAV-like vehicle. Indeed, this radar is designed and used by ONERA as a UAV radar test bench. Different upgrades are under study, such as a squint-angle acquisition mode or an increase of the polarimetry capacities. In addition, a complementary X band sensor is also manufactured. Current airplane used for testing applications is a STEMME S10-VT motorglider as the geometry of this airplane may be representative of a MALE UAV: wingspan is 23m large and weigh is about 900 kilograms.