ESM processor system for high pulse density radar environments

A radar ESM system performs two functions: warning of impending threats and surveillance to determine radar activities. Automatic radar ESM systems are passive radar receivers which receive emissions from other platforms, measure the parameters of each pulse received and thus sort the emissions to enable determination of the radar parameters for each emitter. These parameters are then compared with values stored for known radar types, to identify the emitter-type likely threat and platform. The paper concentrates on emitter de-interleaving of pulse data streams of several hundred thousand pulses/second, which is one of the processing steps involved. Emitter de-interleaving involves sorting the received radar pulses into separate trains, each train associated with asingle emitter. The Cutlass automatic radar ESM system, which is widely in service, is used as an example. Emphasis is placed on the advantages of its pipelined architecture for operating in high pulse density environments.