Optimum ownship manoeuvre for Kinematic Ranging

Some airborne radars are able to assess and track jammers in addition to detecting and tracking targets. The azimuth and elevation direction of broadband noise jammers is evaluated and can then be tracked in azimuth and elevation relative to the ownship boresight direction. In the literature [1, 2] such jammers tracks are named bearing-only tracks or "Angle only Tracks". As the name indicates, the track data comprise only the azimuth and elevation position of the jammers and possibly the corresponding angle velocities. Kinematic ranging [5] is a special method of obtaining range estimates from these "Angle only Tracks" whereby the ownship must carry out predefined manoeuvres. It is of course understandable that the range estimate uncertainty is dependent on the ownship manoeuvre path and the jammer position. This paper suggests a possibility of optimizing the ownship manoeuvre in dependence on jammer location, in order to minimize uncertainty of the jammer estimated range.