Defence Science Journal, Vol. 60, No. 2, March 2010, pp.

204-212
2010, DESIDOC

Radar Cross-section Measurement Techniques

V.G. Borkar*, A. Ghosh, R.K. Singh, and N. Chourasia
Research Centre Imarat, Vignyana Kancha, Hyderabad-500 069
*E-mail: vgborkar1@ rediffmail.com

ABSTRACT
Radar cross-section (RCS) is an important study parameter for defence applications specially dealing
with airborne weapon system. The RCS parameter guides the detection range for a target and is therefore
studied to understand the effectiveness of a weapon system. It is not only important to understand the RCS
characteristics of a target but also to look into the diagnostic mode of study where factors contributing to
a particular RCS values are studied. This further opens up subject like RCS suppression and stealth. The paper
discusses the RCS principle, control, and need of measurements. Classification of RCS in terms of popular
usage is explained with detailed theory of RF imaging and inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR). The various
types of RCS measurement ranges are explained with brief discussion on outdoor RCS measurement range.
The RCS calibration plays a critical role in referencing the measurement to absolute values and has been
described.The RCS facility at Reseach Centre Imarat, Hyderabad, is explained with some details of different
activities that are carried out including RAM evaluation, scale model testing, and diagnostic imaging.
Keywords: Radar cross-section, inverse synthetic aperture radar, stealth, RCS control, anechoic chamber

1. INTRODUCTION a complex scattering matrix. The measurement of the RCS

Radar scattering is typically represented as the radar of a test object requires the test object to be illuminated
cross section (RCS) of the test object. The RCS is a measure by an electromagnetic plane wave and the resultant scattered
of power scattered in a direction being considered when signal to be observed in the far field. After calibration,
a target is illuminated by a plane wave. The RCS-s is a this process yields the RCS of the test object in units of
measure of reflective strength of a target defined as 4p area, or the full scattering matrix as a set of complex scattering
times the ratio of the power per unit solid angle (steradian) coefficients.
scattered in a specified direction to the power per unit The phenomena can be explained in simplified way
area in a plane wave incident on the scatterer from defined for simple 2-D test objects, however for 3-D complex targets
direction 1. It is the limit of that ratio as the distance from the total reflection is made up of individual reflection from
the scatterer to the point where the scattered power is prominent scattering centers. Major backscatter sources
measured (r)approaches infinity: at given target aspect are resulted by specular reflection
from flat surfaces of the target normal to the radar and
2
E scat energy diffraction from corners. Other sources of backscatter
2 are creeping waves and resonant parts of the target. The
s = Lt 4pr 2 (1)
r overall phenomena is little difficult to predict through
E inc
computer codes and simulation programs as identification
where, E scat is the scattered field and E inc is the field of all sources of scattering and exact process is difficult
incident at the target. to visualise and to calculate the actual overall scattered
The RCS is thus given in units of area (or effective energy.
cross-sectional area of the target). However, it is to be
noted that RCS of the test object is a property of the test 2. RCS CONTROL
object alone, and not a function of the radar system or The RCS of a target plays an important role in detection
the distance between the radar and the test object, as long by radar. Enhancement or reduction of RCS of a target
as the target is in far field, often this cross sectional area which is being detected by radar needs control depending
is expressed in units of decibels with respect to square on the applications. A thorough understanding of the
meters (abbreviated as dBsm). electromagnetic scattering characteristics of a target is
Using this definition, the RCS of a radar target is a necessary for successful implementation of desired control
scalar ratio of powers. If the effects of polarisation and of its RCS.
of phase are included, the scattering can be expressed as In military applications, it is necessary to reduce the
Received 24 April 2009, Revised 10 February 2010

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RCS of air targets like missiles, UAV, aircraft, and spy is located far enough from the radar so that the incident
satellites. Similarly, ground vehicles and missile launchers wave is an acceptably plane wave5. For RCS measurements
need to be designed so that they have minimum RCS. For following accessories are essential:
testing of radars and seekers, artificial targets are required. (a) Instrumentation radar: for transmitting and receiving
These artificial targets are to be designed for required the microwave signals of desired frequency
RCS and sometimes, it is necessary to enhance the RCS (b) Target rotator: (with very low self RCS in the direction
to meet the range and testing conditions. In civilian applications, of measurement) to manipulate target orientation and
for satisfactory performance of air-traffic control radars generate all possible target orientations
it is necessary to reduce reflections from the nearby buildings (c) Targets: The test object and calibration targets with
and aircraft hangers. suitable interfacing arrangement on positioning system.
It is not only desirable to reduce RCS but at times (d) Environment: A low background signal environment
to enhance it, the actual requirement only spells out the with far field behavior
selection; however RCS is the relationship that connects (e) Control and data acquisition system: For automatic
target range for an existing radar system that is being configuration, acquisition and analysis of multi-channel
used for the detection. RF data and positioning system
Conventional approach followed in RCS measurements
2.1 Reduction of RCS is based on following approaches:
There are various ways of reducing the RCS of target, (a) Continuous wave (CW) RCS measurements.
like physical target shaping, applying radar absorbing (b) Stepped CW (SFCW) RCS measurements.
material (RAM) on surface of target, and using active (c) Gated CW RCS measurements.
elements on the surface. The RAM material absorbs incident (d) Frequency modulated (FM) CW RCS measurements.
electromagnetic wave and reduces the RCS. For narrow (e) Pulsed RCS measurements.
bandwidth applications, a single coating of RAM is generally In CW RCS measurement the CW signal at the desired
applied but for broad bandwidths different materials with frequency is recorded by a tuned narrow band receiver.
multiple layers are coated. Sometimes active elements are Since RCS can only be estimated if the correct vector
used which work on the principle of phase cancellation signal of the target component is identifiable, this measurement
in the desired direction. In target shaping, the shape of approach depends heavily on the possibility of performing
the target is modified to change the direction of scattered the vector subtraction between a target along with background
energy from one angular region of interest to another and background (without target) measurements. The
unimportant region. However, for airborne targets aerodynamic measurement technique suffers from the disadvantage that
shape is also important and tradeoffs are to be worked it can not resolve very small scatterers if the subtraction
out. Static targets are more flexible for shaping. is not perfect. The factors that may lead to imperfect
cancellation can be target support interaction, feed coupling
2.2 RCS Enhancement (Augmentation) etc. The disadvantage is overcome in stepped CW measurement
Some practical applications require enhancement of technique.
the RCS. Training aircrafts need continuous tracking and In SFCW measurement technique a band of frequency
hence for reliable tracking their RCS is augmented. Artificial is transmitted instead of a single frequency as it carries
airborne targets are used for missile performance evaluation. more information and then by applying time domain gating
These targets are tracked by radars. The RCS of these (after Fourier transform application). Imperfect subtraction
airborne targets is enhanced. Usual practice is to use can be taken care of by gating desired target zone, using
Luneburg lenses, corner reflectors as well as transponders the fact that targets and imperfections cannot utilise the
with amplifiers. It depends upon the application. same downrange cell location. The other advantage of
SFCW technique is that it can lead to ISAR imaging6,7.
2.3 Need of RCS Measurements FMCW is a special implementation (faster) of SFCW form
The RCS is a vital parameter for the design of modern where the radar is specially designed to perform these
aircrafts, missiles, helicopters, ground military vehicles, measurements in a single shot8.
launchers, airport buildings, and other important strategic Gated CW is an advantageous form of simple CW
installations. It is difficult to theoretically estimate RCS technique, where the CW signal is chopped by switches
of complex targets as it is impossible to include all practical to generate a pulsed CW waveform (in transmit chain).
phenomena into consideration. Hence, it becomes necessary This helps in cutting down the target-only zone from
to have a suitable RCS measurement facility depending clutter and by properly adjusting the delay in receive
on the target size and measurement specifications. chain (to avoid power from Tx to tunnel into Rx chain).
The advantage of this technique is that it combines the
3. RCS MEASUREMENT PRINCIPLE advantage of pulse and CW measurements. The technique
The main purpose of RCS measurement is to collect offers the advantage of using narrow band receivers
radar target scattering data at various viewing angles 2-4. to perform fast measurements. Further advantages are
The data should correspond to far field where the target in using SFCW or FMCW signals within the pulse envelope.

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The system suffers with the disadvantage of complex 3.2.1 Synthetic Aperture Radar
system design, timing, and control requirement for automatic Consider a moving radar antenna at a single position
measurements. illuminating an area of the target. This illuminated area
Pulsed CW is a special implementation of gated CW is termed the footprint of the radar. As the radar moves,
where the generated signal itself is a pulse rather than at fixed intervals transmit, receive and store operation is
the chopped CW. In general, same receive technique can done. The stored signals are then summed coherently to
be adopted as in case of gated CW measurements. Wide produce signals equivalent to those that would be received
band receivers also find application in measurement of by a physical aperture with the same length as the synthetic
RCS in pulse mode. aperture7,9. Thus large physical aperture in real array radar
can be avoided by synthesising an equivalent aperture
3.1 CLASSIFICATION OF RCS MEASUREMENT through sequential transmission and reception of each
There are many classification of RCS measurements, individual element or position of the radar antenna. A SAR
governed usually by the final usage of the information. image is produced by processing and sampling of the
popular classification of RCS measurements are based on: received signals scattered from the target at various viewing
(a) Transmit and receive observation point with respect angles.
to the target, i.e., monostatic and bistatic RCS.
(b) Information about the target, i.e., gross RCS or diagnostic 3.2.2 Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar
imaging. In ISAR, the target to be imaged is rotated or moved
Monostatic RCS: The transmit and receive observation while the radar is stationary6,7. Therefore, ISAR technique
points are co-located, used to express the RCS when requires target motion. As the target rotates while radar
the target is observed from the same radar in operational beam remains fixed, reflectivity data due to the different
environment. responses of the different scatterers of the target can
Bistatic RCS: The transmit and receive observation be worked out.
points are separated in angle, used to express the Figure 1 shows an ISAR target rotating within the
RCS when the target is illuminated and observed by beam of stationary radar. Angle y is the rotational angle
different spatially separated radar stations. made by the target as the target rotates. The y-axis corresponds
to the line of sight of the radar and range to the centre
Gross RCS: For gross RCS measurements at a particular of rotation is R. Instantaneous range to a target scatterer
frequency for the defined set of transmitting and receive P is r from centre of rotation O of the target. In ISAR
polarization, the reflectivity data is collected with imaging, measurements are taken with reference to the
and without target in required annular sector with the targets rotation and range 7 .
help of positioning system. The measurements need
calibration with a set of known standard targets to
reference measured reflectivity to absolute/gross RCS
values. Gross RCS term is basically the far field RCS
of the target under test with respect to angles as a
function of frequency and polarization.
Diagnostic Imaging: Often it is necessary to know
the location of prominent scatters of the complex
targets in addition to the gross RCS. The target needs Figure 1. ISAR geometry.
microwave imaging to find out the prominent scatters
also known as hot spots of the target. The RF imaging 3.2.2.1 Cross-range Resolution
is basically the spatial distribution of scattering in Figure 1 shows a target rotating about point O with
2/3 dimensions to identify and isolate individual scattering a scatterer P at distance r from O. As the target rotates
centers. Since imaging is an indirect process (if to with an angular velocity of w , the distance between the
be performed based on frequency domain information) radar and P will be smaller and this results in the radar
the parameters are to be carefully chosen for correct echo from P having a positive Doppler frequency of
display and identification of desirable location.
Theory of RF imaging: A target of interest can be f d = 2r w/l (2)
considered as comprising of various reflecting centres where, l is the transmitted wavelength. If two scatterers
called scatters and the radar image is the spatial distribution are separated in cross-range but in the same slant range
of these scatterers. Electromagnetic waves are transmitted cell has a separation distance of Drc , the Doppler frequency
towards targets and the received signal can be used difference becomes:
to determine the shape and composition of the target. Df d = 2Dr c w/l (3)
synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and inverse synthetic Equation (3) shows that the cross-range resolution
aperture radar are the techniques used for RF imaging is dependent on the resolvable Doppler frequency. The
of the targets. Doppler resolution Dfd is approximately equal to the reciprocal

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of the coherent integration time T. Hence, the cross-range The chamber therefore simulates a free-space test condition.
resolution can be given as:
4.1 Anechoic ChamberFar-field Range
Dr c = (lDf d )/(2w) = l/(2wT) = l/(2y) (4) A simple rectangular room is a most popular design
where, y = wT is the rotating angle during coherent which meets almost all the requirements. Generally width
processing time T. The cross-range extent X c is divided and heights are almost same for the chambers. Length is
into resolution cells of length Dr c long and must be sampled generally twice the width. Quiet zone is the volume where
by N samples, where N is the number of measurement electromagnetic field variation is within the specified limits
bursts. Hence, the unambiguous cross-range window, which in terms of amplitude and phase characteristics. The quite
is the maximum extent of a target in the cross-range that zone size of a test range determines from the physical size
can be unambiguously sampled with N bursts is: of the target to be evaluated in the range. The range
length is chosen so that the target under evaluation is
X c = NDr c = Nl/(2y) (5) in the far field of the source antenna and quiet zone is
Here, imaging has been discussed in two dimensions formed with required specifications5. Generally length (R)
through processing of echo signals over a series of rotation is chosen so that the following condition is met:
angles in X-plane. For 3-D image, measurements are repeated
in elevation plane along with azimuth plane. Height resolution 2D 2
R= (11)
can be calculated by: l
where, R is the range length, D is the maximum cross-
Y c = MDr c = Ml/2F = l/2DF (6) sectional dimension of target under test, and l is the free
where, F is the depression angle covered by sequence space wavelength.
of rotations and DF is the increment between elevation Knowing the required quiet zone size and the range
samples. Y c is unambiguous height window. length, in conjunction with the gain and pattern characteristics
of the radiating source antenna, the conventional rectangular
3.2.2.2 Down-range Resolution chamber design can be formulated. The radar absorbing
For a simple pulsed radar system range resolution material (RAM) is applied on the inner walls of the chamber
(DR) is a function of pulse width (t) and is given by to attenuate the reflected signal. The chamber specular
regions will be both end walls and approximately central
DR = c t/2 (7) areas of both the side walls, floor, and ceiling. The end
where c is the velocity of light. The pulse width of the wall behind the quiet zone is illuminated by direct main
radar system and band width (B) are inter-related and are beam of the source antenna at normal or near normal
given by: incidence. Consequently the RAM performance in this
region must be selected to match the required quiet zone
B = 1/t (8) reflectivity. On the opposite end wall, behind the source
Hence Eqn (8) can be modified to: antenna, the RAM is illuminated by the antenna back lobe
and the performance can be adjusted depending upon the
DR = ct/2 = c/2*B (9) front to back antenna pattern ratio. Side wall, floor and
The next section describes different popular ranges ceiling specular regions require careful design. The size
for RCS measurements. and shape of the specular area should be determined in
terms of fresnel zones. Figure 2 shows sketch of a anechoic
4. MEASUREMENT RANGES chamber-far-field range.
Choice of a RCS measurement range is driven by following
parameters: 4.2 Anechoic ChamberCompact Range
(i) Size of the target Compact range uses the reflective properties of a
(ii) Frequency of measurement paraboloidal reflector to correct the phase curvature of
(iii) Overall measurement/ database requirement, accuracy electromagnetic wave radiated from a small antenna at the
in measurements, etc. focal point of the reflector. The reflected wave is collimated
Following RCS measurement range configurations are and the phase curvature is substantially corrected to simulate
popular: far-field conditions within a compact range. The compact
(a) Anechoic chamber - Far-field range range requires a special anechoic chamber having high
(b) Anechoic chamber - Compact range quality RAM on the end wall. The collimating effect of
(c) Outdoor range the reflector de-emphasizes the effect of the chamber walls,
(d) Near field range floor and ceiling allowing the use of less stringent RAM.
Anechoic is a word of Greek origin which means, The RAM is also fitted to the feed antenna equipment,
without echo. Anechoic chamber offers a test environment the reflector pedestals, and the test target positioner, eliminating
where the reflected electromagnetic energy from the chamber spurious reflections from these objects. Figure 3 shows
walls is attenuated and controlled to a specified low value. photograph of a compact range.

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1. For fixed target height:

(a) The range should have variable distance capability.
(b) The range should have variable Tx/Rx height capability.
2. For fixed range distance:
(a) The range should have variable Tx/Rx height capability.
(b) The range should have variable target height capability.
The above two parameters help in identifying the
unique solution for each frequency of operation.
For RCS, the measurement requirement is to position
the target whose reflectivity characteristics is to be evaluated
on a elevated platform (to be termed as pylon) at TUT
location. At the Tx end, two side by side antenna systems
one for transmitting and the other for receiving the backscattered
signal, are positioned. Both the antenna systems can be
Figure 2. Anechoic chamberfar-field range. physically co-located (in case of monostatic measurements)
or can have a relative angle between them (bi-static
4.3 Open Range measurements), based on whether the reflectivity characteristics
The RCS measurements need a transmitter, a receiver, are to be measured for an active radar or for a semi-active
and a positioning system for the target under test. Transmitting radar system.
antenna should generate a plane wave at the target. The Usually the practice for performing such measurements
target should create far-field at the receiving antenna. is to first measure the characteristics of the TUT and then
This is possible in a open space, however, the locations taking the measurement data again without the target (to
of transmitter, receiver, and target are to be fixed such that be termed as background data). The vectorial subtraction
there are no reflections from the near environment and of both measurements give the return contributed only
the ground. In actual scenario, it is difficult to stop reflections by the target and its magnitude a direct measure of its
from the ground. There are two possibilities of implementation RCS. For such facility where full-scale targets are to be
of the open range in context to ground reflections: measured, there are some significant factors to be considered:
(a) Ground plane reflection is used in the measurements, (a) Time to be taken for mounting the target
and (b) Time to raise the system to the measurement height
(b) Ground plane reflections are defeated using fences, (c) Measurement time for required aspect angles
berms or absorbers. (d) Time to lower the pylon system
The various parameters that dictate the performance (e) Time to remove the object from pylon
of the test zone are: Transmitter height H tx, target under (f) Time to raise the pylon again to the measurement
test (TUT) height Hr, wavelength of operation l, and range height
separation distance R. Since the parameters are frequency (g) The deflection of pylon system with and without TUT
dependent, it requires that a unique solution exists at The effect on measured background data will depend
each frequency of operation for the target, TUT, as well on time taken from (d) to (g) operations. Typical values
as range distance. Therefore to achieve measurement capability, may run into few hours for heavy duty system. As the
following are termed as the basic requirements of the test measurement situation is an outdoor range the parameters
range for different types of schemes. may vary drastically and may lead to imperfect cancellation
of vectors leading to wrong measurements. The solution
COMPACT ANTENNA TEST RANGE ( CAR ) lies in designing a system with following characteristics:
(i) The pylon design is of special type and doesnt require
any background data cancellation, that means the
backscatter from the pylon is very small (typically
< 40 dBsm).
(ii) Use of time (range) gating in implementation of the
system to eliminate backscattering from nearby scattering
sources.
Condition (i) requires that the pylon shape need to
be forward leaning OGIVAL with very sharp leading edge.
The target should be mounted in such a way that all
rotating parts are embedded inside the body of the TUT,
meaning it should become part of the target (masked inside
it). Once such conditions exist it ensures that Target during
measurements is viewed as resting on the top of a sharp
Figure 3. Compact Range. blade. It has limitation that if the pylon top is displaced

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due to target weight then it may have slightly more RCS targets are constructed in shapes varying from flat plates,
than its no-load condition. But till the time it is ensured discs, cylinders and corner reflectors in addition to
that the value is lower than the lowest RCS one is interested spheres. The return target echo for the target in angular
to measure, specifications about maximum allowable deflection zones with theoretically well known empirical relationship
as well as sharpness of the blade can be worked out. is compared and a curve is drawn to obtain correct
slope relationship.
5. INSTRUMENTATION
Figure 4 shows schematic basic diagram of RCS 6.3 Handling Small Targets
measurements indicating various instruments required for For small target returns time domain gating can be
measurements. The transmitter generates the RF signal to efficiently applied to isolate clutter outside the target
be radiated through antenna towards the target under zone. This helps not only in identifying special target
measurement. The reflected signal from the target is received returns but can be used for reference target return smaller
by the antenna and goes to the receiver. The receiver than the lowest clutter signal in measurement range. This
detects echo signal that can be stored for further processing procedure also helps in improving the measurement errors.
or can be recorded by a recorder.
For very high frequency measurements a transceiver 7. FACILITIES CREATED AND WORK
is added in front to translate lower frequencies to higher CARRIED OUT AT RCI
frequency utilising the principle of up and down conversion. The RCI has RCS measurement capability in an anechoic
chamber/ compact antenna test range with the following
6. CALIBRATION specifications (Fig. 3):
The RCS calibration is the most important part of Frequency range: 4.0 GHz to 110.0 GHz
measurements. There are various procedures that are devised Quite zone size: 1.2 m dia 1.2 m long cylinder
and adopted at Research Centre Imarat (RCI). Amplitude and phase ripple: 0.5 dB max, 10 max
Amplitude and phase taper: 0.5 dB max, 10 max
6.1 Single Target Reference Approach The RCS measurement needs special twin feeds to
This approach relies on the scattering observed be used with transmitter and receiver, which are placed
through a metrological certified metallic sphere. The at the focus of the compact range reflector. These feeds
sphere is popularly constructed in the range of 10dBsm are developed indigenously and are integrated with the
to 25 dBsm. The sphere size with RCS > 10 dBsm are measurement setup.
impractical because of their un-manageable size and Figure 5 shows the calibration standards developed
weight restrictions, where as spheres < 25 dBsm suffer for RCS measurements at RCI. These standards are placed
from incorrect values at lower frequencies (due to creeping on the RCS pylon and signal strength of the returned
wave addition to main energy. Generally, accepted size wave is measured and a calibration curve is drawn. Figure
is the perimeter of the sphere has to be > 10 times the 6 shows the calibration curve for these standards at X
operating wavelength). Band.
The value observed through this standard sphere Calibration curve is drawn at each measurement frequency
is used to calibrate the target return utilising its known upto 94 GHz of frequency. The slope of the line is found
RCS value. This technique suffers heavily in case the to be within 40 to 50 at measurement frequencies.
return power versus RCS value relationship has a slope
other than 45 or because of measurement uncertainty. 7.1 Evaluation of Radar Absorbing Material
The facility is used very effectively for measurement
6.2 Multi-target Reference Approach of absorption characteristics of RAM samples. A metallic
In this procedure, variety of metrological standard flat plate is made of size 1 sq ft 11 . It is mounted on the

Tx Antenna
Source Amplifier

10 MHz
Reference signal

Receiver
& display LNA
Rx Antenna

Figure 4. Basic diagram of RCS measurement.

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7.3 Stepped CW Measurements and Time Domain

Gating
A missile model is tested in stepped CW mode. Then
fast fourier transform (FFT) analysis has been done to get
the time domain response of the target inside the measurement
chamber. Figure 10 shows the results.

7.4 Inverse Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging

A complex target is mounted on the RCS pylon. Stepped
CW measurements are carried out by moving the target
in small steps in Azimuth or/and elevation planes. A two/
three dimensional RF image is generated using FFT. Figure
11 shows the two dimensional image of the complex target.
Figure 5. Typical standards used for calibration for RCS The more topics that can be supplemented to above paper
measurements. would be statistical data processing methods, focussed
and unfocussed imaging as well as super resolution imaging.
CALIBRATION CURVE
50

40 RAM PERFORMANCE WRT SAME SIZE METAL PLATE AT 15 GHz

30

20

10
GROSS RCS

-10
RCS (dBsm)

-20

-30

-40

-50
- 100 -70 -60 -50 -40 -30 -20 -10 0 10 20

MEASURED SCATTERED POWER

Figure 6. Multi target calibration curve at X band.

RCS pylon and aligned for maximum reflection. The reflections ANGLE ()
from the plate are measured with frequency or at a fixed
frequency with angle of rotation of the plate. The plate Figure 7. Measured results on 1 sqft metallic plate and RAM-
is coated with the absorbing material and the measurements coated 1 ft plate.
are repeated. The two measurements are overlaid and RAM PERFORMANCE AT X & Ku BAND

the effective absorption due to absorbing material can

be calculated. Figure 7 shows the measured results for
RELATIVE ATTENUATION (dB)

a metallic plate and an absorbing paint applied plate 15

GHz as a function of angle for vertical transmit and
vertical receive polarization (VV). Figure 8 shows the
reflectivity of the plate at normal incidence as a function
of frequency between 8-18 GHz.

7.2 Evaluation of Complex Targets

A 1/10 th missile model has been tested in the compact
antenna test range at X-band. The model has been mounted
on the RCS pylon with the help of cylindrical polypropylene
support. The model is aligned nose on towards the reflector
and measurements are taken by rotating in the azimuth
plane. Figure 9 shows the predicted results at 1 GHz of FREQUENCY (GHz)

frequency of the actual target based on X-band measurements. Figure 8. Measured results on RAM with respect to frequency.

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1.1 GHz (wings cross)

CR
O
SS
RA
RCS in dBsm N
G
E
CE O.
LL L N
CEL
N GE
O
. N RAN
DOW

Figure 9. Predicted RCS at 1.1 GHz of actual target from 1/10th

DOWN RANGE CELL NO.

scale model measurement.

8. CONCLUSIONS
The paper describes the need for RCS measurements
along with important systems that need to be augmented
within an anechoic chamber or outdoor range for carrying
out successful measurements. It discusses calibration aspects
and various factors that need to be considered while performing
RCS measurements. A practical measurement for RAM evaluation
is described with information that is passed on to designers
CROSS RANGE CELL NO.
and users. Measurement of gross RCS at various angles for
a missile model is presented which gives insight into the Figure 11. Two dimensional RF imaging of a complex target.
utility of scale down model measurements at higher frequencies
for practical targets. Results for stepped CW measurements
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
and time domain gating are presented along with some typical
Late Mr B.K. Mukhopadhayaya initiated RCS
ISAR measurements on an aircraft target showing utility of
measurements at RCI. Authors are thankful to Dr A.P.J.
two dimensional RF imaging to identify hot spots and thus
Abdul Kalam, Mr K.V.S.S. Prasad Rao, Ex-Directors RCI
giving inputs to designers to make it stealthier.
SCATTERING RETURN (dB)

DOWN RANGE

Figure 10. Measured results on a missile target with time domain gating.

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who gave impetus to RCS measurements technology. They Contributors

are also thankful to Dr V.K. Saraswat SA to RM; Mr S.
K. Ray, Director RCI; and Mr R. Das, Technology Director, Dr V.G. Borkar obtained his MSc
DRFS; for their continued guidance and support for this (Physics) from Bhopal University in 1976
and PhD (Physics) from Osmania
activity. Authors would also like to thank Mr Dharmanandam
University, Hyderabad in 1994. Presently,
and Mr Muthu Azagan who kept the facility in good working he is working at Research Centre Imarat
condition. (RCI), Hyderabad. His areas of work
include design and development of high
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section. Artech House, 1993. and radar cross-section (RCS) measurements.
2. Garat, J. Microwave techniques for radar cross section
measurementsA review. In MELECON 96: Dr A. Ghosh obtained his MSc from
Kalyani University, Kolkata in 1978 and
Electrotechnical Conference, 13-16 May 1996. pp.
PhD (Tech) from Kolkata University in
80-86. 1987. He joined Defence Research &
3. Thomas, E. Tice. An overview of radar cross section Development Laboratory in 1986 and
measurement techniques. IEEE Trans. Instrum. Measure., RCI, Hyderabad in 1989. He is working
February 1990, 39(1), 205-07. in the field of antennas, radome, and
4. Dybdal, Robert B. Radar crosss section measurements. RCS measurements.
IEEE Proceedings, April 1987, 75(4), 498-516.
5. Knott, E.F. & Senior, T.B.A. How far is far. IEEE
Trans. Antennas Propag., September 1974, 732-34. Mr Rakesh Kumar Singh obtained his
BE (Electronics and Communication
6. Chen, Chung-Ching. Target-motion-induced radar
Engineering) in 1998 from KEC Dwarahat
imaging. IEEE Tran. Aerospace Electr. Sys., January (Kuma on Uni ve rsi t y) and MTech
1980, AES-16(1), 2-14. (Communication & Radar Engineering)
7. Hui, Ng Kok. Radar Imaging using ISAR. University in 1999 from IIT Delhi. He is presently
of Queensland, October 1998. Thesis Report. working at RCI, Hyderabad, in the areas
8. Lawner, Richard T.; Blanchard, Peter F. & Gogineni, of establishment of technologies for
Siva Prasad. Coherent FM-CW millimeter-wave radar specialised RF test and measurements,
systems for radar cross section measurements. IEEE technologies pertaining to compact range design, radomes,
Trans. Instrum. Measure., February 1990, 39(1), and RCS.
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Mr Nitin Chourasia obtained his BE
9. Skolnik, Merrill I. Introduction to radar systems. (Electronics & Communication Engineering)
McGraw-Hill, New York. from MANIT, Bhopal in 2003. Presently,
10. Wehner, Donald R. High resolution radar. Artech he is presently working at RCI, Hyderabad
House. in the area of antenna design, RCS
11. Rezende, M.C.; Martin, I.M.; Miacci, M.A.S. & Nohara, estimation, associated measurement in
E.L. Radar cross section measurements (8-12 GHz) compact range/anechoic chamber and RF
of flat plates painted with microwave absorbing imaging. Currently, he is involved in the
materials. In SBMO/IEEE MTT-S IMOC 2001 design and development of the indigenous
indoor and outdoor RCS ranges.
Proceedings. pp. 263-66.

212 Celebrating Sixty Ye a r s of Publication