Clutter-limited detection performance of multi-channel conformal arrays

Conformal arrays possess certain desirable characteristics for deployment on unmanned aerial vehicles and other payload-limited platforms: aerodynamic design, minimal payload weight, increased field of view without the need for cumbersome mechanical couplings and rotary joints, and ease of integration with diverse sensor functions. This paper examines the adaptive detection performance potential of aerospace moving target indication radar employing a conformal antenna array. We consider four candidate conformal designs taking the following shapes: belly-mounted canoe, airfoil, cone and chined radome. Furthermore, we compare results to side- and forward-looking planar arrays. We find that array nonlinearity and orientation induce clutter non-stationarity; this non-stationary behavior adversely affects space-time adaptive processing implementations necessary for effective clutter suppression. We find that additional adaptive losses exceed 12 dB as a result of conformal geometry-induced clutter non-stationarity. Several mitigating solutions to non-stationarity are given. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.