A popular approach to SAR ATR is to use a hierarchical arrangement of stages, aimed at narrowing the field of interest and concentrating detection resources in those areas with the highest probability of containing a target. CFAR detectors have played a prominent role in such systems. So have morphological processing techniques, but to a lesser extent. The work reported in this paper follows the traditional hierarchical approach and employs CFAR and morphological principles. With the goal of improving detection accuracy and reducing the false alarm rate, we have explored and developed some new variations on the theme.The baseline CFAR and morphology algorithms have been significantly modified in proposed techniques to better match SAR target signatures. In addition, the modified algorithms have the ability to locate targets in a fast and efficient manner, allowing for the possibility of real-time implementation. Experimental evaluations indicate that both approaches perform well, with further performance gains noted when the algorithms are merged. The advantages and drawbacks of each algorithm are presented and experimental results are shown for a variety of test cases.