JOINT STARS PHASED-ARRAY RADAR ANTENNA

The Joint STARS phased array radar system is capable of performing long range airborne surveillance and was used during the Persian Gulf war on two E8-A aircraft (Figure 1) to fly many around-the-clock missions to monitor the Kuwait and Iraq battlefield from a safe distance behind the front lines. This paper is a follow-on to previous publications [1, 2] on the subject of the Joint STARS antenna and deals mainly with mission performance and technical aspects not previously covered. Radar data of troop movements and armament installations will be presented, a brief review of the antenna design is given, followed by technical discussions concerning the three-port interferometry, gain and sidelobe design approach, cost control, range test implementation and future improvements.