Smart binary phase-coding for pulse-compression radar: An electronic protection technique against repeater jamming

Abstract

Nowadays, modern radar systems increase their target detection capabilities by processing pulses coherently. On the other hand, digital radio frequency memory-based modern jammers have the ability to work coherently and can deceive radars even with a very low effective radiated power. These jammers, which have the capability of storing the radar's pulse, can use the previous pulses that they have stored in their memory during the electronic deception, without waiting for the last pulse of the radar, in other words, before the new pulse is received. If the radar does not change its parameters from pulse to pulse, such smart jamming techniques applied in this way can be very effective. In this article, the authors propose to use a smart binary phase-coding method for pulse compression radar as an electronic protection technique against repeater jamming. This approach further improves the target detection capability of modern radar systems, which use coherent integration in the receiver. The proposed method can provide high protection against digital radio frequency memory-based repetitive range deception techniques without compromising the radar's target detection capability. In the simulations, the traditional approach in which the same code is used without changing from pulse-to-pulse, and the approach using code sets obtained by the smart binary phase-coding method in intra-pulse modulation are compared. The results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the isolation against deception jamming and the target detection capability simultaneously.