The future of radar
The future of radar does not lie in larger and more powerful systems, but rather in slightly smaller systems that are more agile, intelligent and difficult to detect because of the larger bandwidths that will be used. The resolution of radars, and the number of targets that can be tracked, can be expected to increase as large amounts of low-cost computer power become available. The factor limiting radar performance is likely to remain technology (rather than any law of physics) for some time to come. Until recently, it was the ability to process the large amounts of data that created an upper limit to performance, but with the advent of parallel processing the weakest link in the chain is almost certain to become the A/D converter because of the problem of increasing the sampling rate while maintaining a high dynamic range. The recent trend of moving the point at which the A/D conversion takes place further and further up the receiving chain towards the antenna only exacerbates this problem. Radar seems certain to provide challenging engineering, mathematical and computational problems to be solved for years to come. We hope that this book has conveyed the main ideas and helped you to understand the underlying principles of radar. We hope also that you have gained an appreciation of the importance of radar in many diverse areas, and sensed some of the excitement of working in this field.
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