Civil Air Traffic surveillance with passive radar for anti-terrorism

Conventional civil Air Traffic Control (ATC) systems are able to detect targets and identify collaborative aircrafts in the air space but they don´t assure full coverage at low altitudes, in presence of non cooperative targets (NCTs) and aircraft (A/C) with a low value of radar cross section (RCS). This paper describes a new architecture that aims at addressing these limitations, developed in the frame of the ARGUS 3D (AiR GUidance and Surveillance 3D) project funded by the European Union (FP7). This project intends to improve the current ATC systems for civil applications, extending their coverage and making them able to detect, recognize and track NCTs, by means of innovative sensors, such as a new enhanced Primary Surveillance Radar (PSR), passive and bistatic radar network. This work is focused on the activities performed by SESM - a Finmeccanica Company - and the DIET Dept. of University of Rome “La Sapienza”. Specifically, the functional requirements and interfaces between different sensors of ARGUS 3D system are described, together with an overview of the FM-based Passive Bistatic Radar (PBR) sub-system.