Active-phased-arrays and digital beamforming: Amazing breakthroughs and future trends

Many think that radar is a mature field, nothing new to happen; it has been around a long time. Nothing can be further from the truth. When the author entered the field in the 50psilas the author thought the same thing. The MIT Radiation Lab series 28 book volume set summarizing the highly classified World War II work on radar was just published and provided the definitive coverage and there was to be nothing more to learn. Since then many amazing new developments have taken place, especially with respect to active-phased-arrays and digital beam forming (DBF). Things are moving even faster now. We live in exciting times.