Low-cost Ka band SAR/ISAR for UAV applications

Growing interest in low cost unattended observations has lead Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control to examine and demonstrate feasibility of a small inexpensive SAR/ISAR system at Ka band. By trading off state of the art performance for cost and volume, system performance for UAV applications is still adequate to provide important tactical information to battle field commanders in real time while reducing the exposure of war fighters to hostile fire. As RF and millimeterwave component become cheaper and more robust, system costs are expected to fall further. To demonstrate this concept, we have built a portable system with 500 Mhz instantaneous bandwidth, and have used to it gather SAR and ISAR data along with conventional HRR and LFM target data at Ka Band. Here we present sample data collected with our system along with supporting system performance supporting the use of such inexpensive systems in near term applications.