RCS Measurements and ISAR Images of Fixed-wing UAV for Fully Polarimetric Radar

The radar cross section (RCS) of fixed-wing UAV is important to radar detection of the UAV. And the inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) images in different polarization modes provide information on which features of the UAV are mainly responsible for the radar response. In this paper, we carry out an experiment to measure the fully polarimetric radar returns of the fixed-wing UAV in anechoic chamber. Based on the measured radar returns, the RCS and ISAR images of the UAV in HH, HV, VH and VV polarization modes are presented.

I. Introduction

In recent years, the small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been widely used for filming, agriculture irrigation, mapping and hobbies. The UAVs bring much convenience to our daily life. However, they pose serious threat in both national and civil safbeties at the same time as they may be abused for criminal offense or terrorist attack. Therefore, radar detection and classification of the UAVs is of significant important to prevent the UAVs from abuse.