Use of STAP techniques to enhance the detection of slow targets in shipborne HFSWR

This paper addresses the detection of low velocity targets from a shipborne HFSWR (high frequency surface waves radar). In a shipborne configuration, as a consequence of the ship motion, the first order of Bragg lines is spread in the useful Doppler interval where detections of a ship target are expected to appear. Space time techniques like STAP, usually studied for airborne radar purposes, are candidates to reduce the effect of ship motion. The influence of pitch and roll components is also discussed. Simulations of STAP techniques are given, based on a conventional architecture of processing. Estimation of the clutter covariance matrix is studied with respect to the characteristics of the radar waveform. Interleaving between the classical HFSWR waveform and a wide band learning waveform is proposed, to enable the covariance estimation.