New directions in bistatic radar

It has been remarked that interest in the subject of bistatic radar has varied cyclically, with a period of about fifteen years. The very first radars were bistatic, until T/R switches were invented. Interest was revived in the 1950s/1960s, with semi-active homing missiles and the SPASUR system, then died away. The second resurgence was in the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, with systems such as SANCTUARY and the first experiments in Passive Bistatic Radar. And the third resurgence started in the mid-1990s, and is still continuing. There are good reasons to believe that this time it is for real. The consequences of Moore’s law mean that digital processing power, which is essential to realise practical systems, increases inexorably. The advent of GPS solves many of the problems of timing and synchronization which were previously very difficult. Bistatic systems may be able to address new military and security operational requirements such as the detection and tracking of low-signature targets, and the increasing use of unmanned air vehicle (UAV) platforms is also well-suited to bistatic and multistatic configurations. There has been particular interest in bistatic radar exploiting broadcast, communications or radionavigation signals as illuminators - so-called passive bistatic radar (PBR).