Microwave wireless coordination technologies for coherent distributed maritime radar

Developments in communications and networking have enabled separate microwave wireless systems to coordinate at increasingly detailed levels, creating a path towards distributed wireless systems. Coherent distributed arrays, where the individual wireless systems synchronize at the level of the RF carrier phase, achieve transmit power gains on the order of the number of platforms squared, and receive gains proportional to the number of platforms. For radar applications, an array with N elements yields an overall system gain of N3 in the far field of the array, providing a significant improvement in radar sensitivity. This paper analyzes improved detection capabilities for surface maritime radars operating coherently, and discusses technologies for achieving coherent gain. Recently developed microwave wireless technologies for inter-node coordination in coherent distributed arrays are presented, and future challenges for coherent arrays of maritime radars are discussed.