Space Based Radar to Track Ground Targets

Published: Mar 06, 2006
Source: www.military.com



Kirtland AFB, N.M. - When launched in 2010, a football-field-in-length demonstrator radar antenna, weighing more than 5 tons, will serve as the forerunner for the future of America's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets in space.

Administered by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate here, the innovative space-based radar antenna technology, or ISAT, program focuses on developing systems to deploy extremely large (up to 300 yards) electronically scanning radar antennas flying 5,700 miles above the Earth's surface and providing improved ground target detection to the warfighter.

"These huge antennas will enable the revolutionary performance required to conduct tactical sensing from space, including missions like continuous and reliable tracking of surface targets," said Dr. Steven A. Lane, ISAT program manager. "Since it uses radar, it is not limited by cloud coverage and can operate at night, unlike optical systems."

Originated in 2002, and sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at Arlington, Va., the ISAT program also involves participation by the laboratory’s sensors directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, and information directorate at Rome Laboratory, N.Y., as well as NASA's Langley Research Center at Langley Va., and Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.continue..