U.S.radars -past 0present and future

Mods if this is in the wrong place please advise and let me know were it should go thank you in advance poster note
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Lockheed's 'Spooky Radar' Gets U.S. Patent
By Sharon Weinberger

May 22, 2008 | 11:32:54 AM


A year ago, we wrote about Lockheed Martin's "spooky radar," a theoretical technology that uses quantum entanglement and Einstein's concept of "spooky action at a distance" for a radar with radically advanced capabilities. The radar concept, thought up by scientists at Lockheed's Skunk Works, became public when Lockheed filed a patent application in Europe. Well, this week, Lockheed was granted a patent in the United States for its spooky radar, which "can simultaneously achieve the low attenuation/high range associated with a long wave length and the high resolution associated with a short wave length."

So, what's the big deal? As the patent states, a quantum radar could defeat stealth aircraft, spot camouflaged objects and more:

The ability to propagate radar signals at frequencies that are independent of the resolution frequency may allow quantum radar system 100 to attain near zero attenuation rates in the atmosphere, and greatly diminished attenuation rates in other media including foliage, building materials, earthen layers, etc. Quantum radar system 100, thus, can be adapted to visualize useful target details through background and/or camouflaging clutter, through plasma shrouds around hypersonic air vehicles, through the layers of concealment hiding underground facilities, IEDs, mines, and other threats--all while operating from an airborne platform or other suitable platform. Quantum radar system 100 may also improve the performance of advanced image processing and pattern recognition systems, as well as defeat most RF signature management systems when the propagation frequency is tuned to the resonant wave length of the target.

This is a fascinating concept, but it appears to be mostly conceptual at the moment; I suspect the quantum radar could be even further away than quantum computers

Reminds me of the Einstein's "ghost experiment" :roll:

Edit: Okay, just read the first paragraph. It has to do with the experiment after all. It may lead to the ultimate solution against ECM too.

No problem this is the right part of the forum for such topics.

$24.6M to Advance Naval Radar Absorption Materials


Visby Corvette

As the reach of anti-ship missiles lengthens, and their killing power improves, various forms of naval stealth are moving from research curiosities and cameo roles in James Bond films to design and deployment at sea. Materials science is an important component of that effort, and features prominently in stealth ships like Sweden’s Visby Class corvettes and Norway’s Skjold Class air cushioned catamaran corvettes.
Small business qualifier Materials Sciences Corp. in Horsham, PA received a $24.6 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase III cost-plus-fixed-fee, indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity contract for “continued research, development, and application of advanced metallic and non-metallic materials in existing and new Navy structures and machinery. The research and development of these materials will provide for improved structural, electrical and thermal performance of radar absorption materials.”

SBIR Phase III means the technology is moving out of the research phase and into commercialization/ production. Work will be performed in Horsham, PA (80%); Philadelphia, Pa. (5 percent); West Bethesda, Md. (5 percent); Washington, D.C. (5 percent); and Gulfport, Miss. (5 percent), and work is expected to be completed by September 2013. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was competitively procured with one proposal solicited and oneoffer received via the Phase III SBIR program. The Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (N65540-08-D-0011).

From Space to Sea, New Radar Tech Could Shift Military Might

By Joe Pappalardo

Published on: January 28, 2008

This month Lockheed Martin released a 280-word statement from its radar research headquarters in New Jersey announcing a breakthrough test of an advanced radar platform. And while the tech world shrugged, people watching the evolution of radar saw another step for a system that could have a dramatic effect on future world affairs, from American missile-tracking platforms in the Czech Republic to the ship-based defense of the Taiwan Straits.

The new radar system, called digital beamforming, could become a game-changing technology that may help defeat an overwhelming attack on U.S. warships by missiles. It could also answer one of the chief complaints about ballistic missile defense systems—that decoys or other countermeasures could easily hide a warhead and spoof interceptors. If placed on satellites, new spy and environmental monitoring missions become possible from orbit.

All this comes as an improvement to an existing system called phased-array radar. While traditional radars spin their faces to seek targets, phased-array radars guide a reflective beam electronically from a stationary panel. They can track things by moving the main beam very quickly, within microseconds, at numerous targets. But the phased array systems cannot seamlessly track multiple targets at the same time without losing resolution. Lockheed’s improvement on these radars allows true simultaneous tracking, with each target followed by a dedicated radar beam.

Digital beamforming, then, combines the cutting edges of antenna and digital technologies: A radar array digitizes the signals it receives, preserving all the incoming information. This data is then used to form as many radar beams as necessary to track as many objects as appear. The crucial advantage to this approach is the ability to confidently cover a vast area with a single system.

Lockheed for the first time has been testing a digital beam array to locate and track live targets—in this case, commercial and military aircraft coming in and out of the Philadelphia area. “The hard part was how we combined all the data ... to form the individual beams,” Scott Smith, program manager for the radar system at Lockheed, tells PM. Commercially available high-speed digital electronics and advanced signal processors have become advanced enough to allow this data processing to occur, and that in turn has enabled digital beamforming to become practical for use outside a lab.

One key component to all phased-array radars is transmit/receive modules. These inch-long modules increase the power of the transmitted signal, ready the system to receive responses and steer the beam to find targets. Lockheed engineers have used new materials in digital beamforming t/r modules that make them tough enough to hold up to harsh use. By using heat-tolerant silicon carbide in the modules, more power can be pumped through them, giving the radar a longer range and a very precise targeting ability.

Digital beamforming radars will likely find their first homes on ships that track missile threats to U.S. fleets. Those threats will come from ballistic launches hundreds of miles away or from high-speed missiles launched from submarines or warplanes. The Russian government has been busy selling sea-skimming, antiship missiles to China that are designed to overwhelm the U.S. fleet’s radars, so the ability to track multiple, fast-moving threats could become vital in the Taiwan Straits. But a digitized phased array radar can handle many incoming signals at once, and should be able to discern real threats from bits of metal or shaped decoy balloons.So somewhere a Chinese admiral is frowning at Lockheed’s news, and a Taiwanese general is smirking.

The development could even fuel Russian paranoia over its nuclear deterrent and make its leadership more intransigent about U.S. radar bases, ostensibly established to protect Europe from Iranian missiles, on its border in Eastern Europe. One way to beat radar systems is to overwhelm them with signals, including decoys.

Therefore, beamforming can change missile defense equations in favor of the defenders. “Russian analysts examining the [missile defense] system would conclude that, at some unforeseen future time ... it might be able to engage many hundreds of targets,” a 2007 Arms Control Association report noted. “Such possibilities, however remote they would seem, would certainly conjure up apocalyptic threats to Russia’s national survival.”

Maybe not so remote: If the radar ground stations that the U.S. wants to establish in the Czech Republic are upgraded with beamforming technology, they could spot Russian missiles just after launch, follow as many missiles as could be put into the air, track inbound warheads amid intentionally scattered decoys and shoot down the real threats. The balance of power in Europe could shift as Russia loses its deterrent edge.

You can well imagine Russian attachés writing grim reports that include the comments of Carl Bannar, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s Radar Systems, who promised in a recent statement to “bring a huge radar technology leap to next generation multi-mission radars.” Lockheed’s Smith said that the use of this radar in ground-based missile defense platforms is one of many targets for sales to the U.S. military.

Another great place for a powerful radar is on a satellite. Space-based radar can be used in a wide variety of ways—to track moving military or intelligence targets, to determine subtle shifts that precede earthquakes or landslides, or to form the backbone of space navigation systems using GPS satellites as reference points from high orbits.

PLA ground phase-array radars/planar array

They can detect and track, but can they destroy the threats fast enough?