Nonlinear STAP processing

The paper deals with the cancellation of clutter echoes in modern airborne early warning (AEW) radar systems equipped with digital beam-forming. The performances of reduced degrees of freedom (DoF) GLRT (generalised likelihood ratio test) detectors and the recently conceived nonlinear detector are compared. The nonlinear detector is demonstrated to be a compromise solution between computational requirements and detection performance. Moreover, it shows much higher robustness to nonhomogeneous clutter. A MATLAB-based software tool is used to show the results that can be achieved using live data recorded by the experimental radar AAFTE (Adaptive Array Flight Test Equipment) of the US Naval Research Laboratory.