A Study on Signal Processing of Ballistic Missile Warhead Discrimination Using ESPRIT in Millimeter-Wave(Ka-Band) Seeker

Abstract

This paper introduces a signal processing technique for discrimination of ballistic missile's warhead. An interceptor missile to destroy the enemy's ballistic missile requires an information on the location of missile's warhead. In order to detect and locate the missile's warhead, a seeker radar in the interceptor missile makes use of chirp waveform to generate high resolution range profiles(HRRPs). We applied one of the well known spectral estimation technique called ESPRIT (Estimation of Signal Parameters by Rotational Invariance Technique) to these HRRPs to estimate scattering centers on the target. Using the information on the one-dimensional(1-D) scattering centers, we can find the location of the warhead by estimating the length of the missile, Simulation results show that the proposed signal processing technique is efficient in discriminating the warhead of an ballistic missile.

Evidence-Theoretic Reentry Target Classification Using Radar: A Fuzzy Logic Approach

“…The target length is a good alternative to compensate for these shortcomings. Studies have been conducted to estimate the warhead length based on HRRP [37], [38], [39]. During reentry, warheads tend to be better aligned and more stable along the direction of the velocity vector, in order to ensure that they do not deviate from the trajectory; this is not the case for intercepted debris or other similar objects [1], [40].…”

“…• Computer-aided design (CAD) model: With reference to ballistic missile targets [52] and similar experience [39], CAD models for targets were built. • Analysis of RCS using computational electromagnetic method tool: Physical optics (PO) and shooting-andbouncing-rays (SBR) techniques were implemented to calculate the RCS.…”