Airborne Phased Array Radar (APAR) Program Status & Critical Requirements Analyses

Program status for the Airborne Phased Array Radar (APAR) currently being developed by Ball Aerospace for the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) will be discussed. Trade studies balancing mission performance, manufacturing, maintainability and cost were performed to drive design decisions for the phased array radar system. This presentation outlines these analyses, our results given the system constraints, and design decisions made that best balance the goals of affordability, robustness, maintainability and engineering performance in an AP AR antenna system. This paper focuses on two of the more critical requirements for APAR mission success: integrated cross-polarization and integrated sidelobe level performances.