In this article, a novel method of fault detection in nonuniformly excited linear antenna array has been reported. This method uses an evolutionary algorithm-based technique to generate approximate radiation pattern in tune with reference faulty pattern for a nonuniformly excited linear antenna array. Based on the approximation, a binary sequence-based method of exact fault detection has been developed. In order to illustrate the effectiveness of the method, 12- and 20-element Dolph Tschebyscheff linear antenna array with amplitude fault has been considered. Superiority of the proposed method has been demonstrated through comparative study.