Adaptive arrays in airborne MTI radar

The ability of an AMTI (airborn moving target indication) radar to reject clutter is often seriously degraded by the motion of the radar. An adaptive receiving array can compensate for platform motion and provide excellent AMTI performance. Scattering from aircraft structure can also distort antenna patterns and reduce AMTI capability. The technique described here can adapt the element weights to compensate for near-field scatterers and element excitation errors. Another important advantage is the ability to null out discrete active interference sources without significantly degrading AMTI performance.