Identification of aircraft on the basis of 2-D radar images

In the past, many methods have been proposed and investigated to identify aircraft non-cooperatively, e.g. by using the infrared-, acoustical-, optical or radar-signatures of the targets. Some of these methods are passive, having the advantage of not alerting the observed object, but with some other shortcomings such as very limited observation ranges or marginal resolutions. The approach presented is based on exploitation of 2-dimensional radar images of an aircraft. Under certain constraints concerning the aspect angle of the target and manoeuvres, these images contain information that may allow for the identification of the aircraft under observation. A processing scheme for an identification process based on 2-D radar images is outlined and the results using both simulated and real data are shown.