Impact of radar stabilization on the design and performance of automated 2-D shipboard radar systems

The degree of roll and/or pitch stabilization in automated 2-D shipboard radars has far reaching impact on detection coverage, track acquisition range, tracking accuracy, and report integrity as well as on cost for a ship operating in a high sea state. This paper analyzes and compares these performance parameters for several hypothetical radars operating in a high sea state for a spectrum of mechanical stabilization capabilities and for a variety of pseudo-stabilization algorithms and responsive tracking algorithm designs which could be included in the operational program. The use of mechanical roll stabilization provides the best compromise of performance and cost among the cases considered. The additional use of pseudo-stabilization in the computer and modified tracking equations responsive to instantaneous ship pitch and roll provides up to a twofold further accuracy improvement. Lack of mechanical stabilization resulted in drastically reduced acquisition range for close in targets and much degraded accuracy.