Radar Camouflage Assessment from Airborne Platforms

Accurate assessment of ones own radar signature is integral to adjusting camouflage measures to the threat at hand. Laboratory investigations of a camouflage sample represent one option although the results may have little to do with its behavior in a real application. For instance, in a radar measurement using Synthetic Aperture Radar, the measurement represents the superposition of the camouflage material with all objects in its surrounding. Each radar measurement requires a flight over the target. This fact and the variations inherent to the flight movement render it difficult to arrive at the number of data sets which optical and infrared sensors are capable of. Recent SAR experiments at Fraunhofer FHR were designed to increase the repeatability and to test new approaches o n limited data sets. The overriding aim is to generate a quantitative measure stating the difference between camouflage materials from airborne data. The results can then be compared to any simulation or laboratory measurement. In this presentation, recent results will be shown using state-of-the-art radars. A number of trials will be evaluated and presented indicating signature differences. Konferenz CD-ROM liegt vor.