Method for detecting the presence of radar signal emitters, an electronic support measures unit and a system for determining the position and identity of said emitters

A method for detecting the presence of a radar signal emitter, comprising the steps of:

• receiving said radar signals by a number of antennas, said antennas pointing in different directions and each antenna covering a sector of the surrounding area;
• splitting the radar signals received from the antennas into a number of first sub-bands;
• converting each of said first sub-bands into baseband channels;
• summing all baseband channels to form a common baseband channel;
• digitizing the signals in said baseband channel;
• and, processing the digitized signals in order to detect and identify the emitter source.

An Electronic Support Measures system for detecting and identifying radars present in an area, said apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of antenna sets, each antenna set including at least one antenna and each set covering a sector of the surrounding area;
• a plurality of receiver front ends, each receiver front end being connected to an antenna set covering a specific sector;
• a plurality of first band-pass filters connected to a first antenna set, said band-pass filters splitting the signals received from the first antenna set into a number of sub-bands;
• a plurality of low noise preamplifiers, each connected with its input to a first band-pass filter and the output connected to one of a corresponding number of mixers, said mixers being adapted to convert a sub-band into baseband;
• wherein the output of each mixer is fed to a second band-pass filter, the outputs of all second band-pass filters being fed to an adder, said adder being adapted to combine the signals received from the second band-pass filters into a common baseband frequency channel;
• an Analog-to-Digital converter connected to said adder and being adapted to digitize the signals received from said adder;
• and, a signal processing unit receiving the signal from the Analog-to-Digital converter.

An Electronic Support Measures system for detecting and identifying radars present in an area, comprising:

• a plurality of antenna sets, each antenna set including at least one antenna and each set covering a sector of the surrounding area;
• a plurality of receiver front ends, each receiver front end being connected to an antenna set covering a specific sector;
• a plurality of first band-pass filters connected to a first antenna set, said band-pass filters splitting the signals received from the first antenna set into a number of first sub-bands;
• a plurality of first low noise preamplifiers, each connected with its input to a first band-pass filter and the output connected to one of a corresponding number of first mixers, said mixers being adapted to convert a first sub-band into an Intermediate Frequency (1st IF), the output from each first mixer being fed to a second band-pass filter tuned to the frequency of said Intermediate Frequency, an output of said second band-pass filters being connected to a first adder, said adder being adapted to combine the signals from the second band-pass filters into a common Intermediate Frequency channel;
• a plurality of receiver second stages, each connected to a receiver front end and receiving said common intermediate frequency channel, said intermediate frequency channel being fed to a number of third band-pass filters in order to split said common intermediate frequency channel into a number of second sub-bands, the output of each third band-pass filter being fed to a second amplifier, the output of the second amplifier being fed to a second mixer, said second mixer being adapted to convert said intermediate frequency channel into baseband, the output of the second mixer being fed to a fourth band-pass filter, the outputs of all fourth band-pass filters being fed to a second adder, said second adder being adapted to combine the signals received from the fourth band-pass filters into a common baseband channel;
• and,
• an Analog-to-Digital converter connected to said second adder and being adapted to digitize the signals received from said second adder, a signal processing unit receiving the signal from the Analog-to-Digital converter.