Reduction Methods For Accelerating Optimization Of Radar Search Patterns

Electronic phased-array radars can perform bidimensional beam-forming and beam steering along both elevation and azimuth axes, offering new possibilities for optimization of radar search patterns. The minimization of the search pattern radar-time budget can be approximated by set covering and solved using integer programming methods. The problem combinatorial structure can be exploited by reduction methods before optimization to reduce the problem size, to decrease its computational cost and to accelerate optimization.