In-Flight Calibration and Testing of Phase Interferometry Based Direction Finding Performance for Airborne Radar Warning Receivers

Radar warning receivers (RWR) are used in electronic warfare to sense radar threats by measuring electromagnetic signals. RWRs employ direction-finding (DF) methods for estimating the direction of arrival of a measured radar signal. DF performance of an RWR employing phase interferometer relies on DF measurement error correction. To achieve a better DF performance, a calibration process driven by operational measurements is necessary. On airborne RWR systems, calibration data is collected by making measurements with the DF antennas mounted on the aircraft platform surface. In this paper, a cost-optimized in-flight calibration data collection and DF performance testing solution is proposed. The software and hardware tools designed to be used in the proposed scenario is presented.