Radar tracking accuracy improvement by means of pulse-to-pulse frequency modulation

Angular scintillation tracking noise for simplified radar target models has been analyzed by Delano, Muchmore, Freeman, and others for monofrequency pulse radars. This paper extends their work to the case of pulse-to-pulse frequency-modulated radars and demonstrates that such radars offer a significant reduction in angle tracking error. Tracking improvement is derived as a function of tracking servo bandwidth, scintillation spectrum, and FM (frequency modulation) regimen. A quantity, ΔLfc, is defined as the minimum pulse-to-pulse frequency shift required to achieve maximum tracking improvement, and is derived as a function of target model and radar parameters.