Radar: Reflections and speculations

This talk will try to briefly review what developments have had an impact on radar (that is, what concepts and technology have made radar of value in the past), what radar concepts and technology were important in the past but might not be so important in the future, what things appear to be of current interest in radar but are not as likely to see lasting utility (that is, ideas that one should examine with caution when exploring potential new directions in radar), and a few new directions in radar that might be of interest to pursue. Among the new directions that might be briefly discussed include: phased arrays that perform multiple function simultaneously rather than in sequence, a different look at the cause of microwave sea echo, and living with a crowded microwave spectrum by use of shared spectrum.