The ONERA compact SAR in Ka band

Abstract:
A concept of low-size and low-weight imaging Ka-Band radar is presented in this paper. This radar is embedded into an under-wing pod, fixed under a STEMME S10VT motorglider. Radar front-end uses FMCW technique which allows to reduce the power emission to a few Watts. In addition, the use of the millimeter band induces antennas size reduction, and makes possible the radar integration into standard STEMME pods. Thus, radar particularities are a low-size and a low-weight basis, making this radar suitable for future integration on board small vehicles, such as UAV. The radar definition will be detailed, together with the results obtained from in flight campaigns executed on 2006 and 2007. This SAR radar has been developed and built by ONERA as a UAV radar test bench. Different upgrades are under study, such as a squint-angle acquisition mode or an increase of the polarimetry capacities. In addition, a complementary X band sensor is also manufactured. Current airplane used for testing applications is a STEMME S10-VT motorglider as the geometry of this airplane may be representative of a MALE UAV: wingspan is 23m large and weigh is about 900 kilograms.