Integration of Electronic Support Measures (ESM) and Alpha-Beta Radar Tracker
Kwang H. Kim · Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) · 1991
In target environments that include Electronic Countermeasures (ECM), where availability of radar range measurements is severely reduced, an integration of ESM data into a multi-sensor tracker provides an inexpensive but effective approach to augmenting radar tracking systems. Tracking-filter equations are presented for a multi-heterogenous sensor tracking system consisting of radars and ESM sensors. Measurement time-based track updating is performed, due to non-periodicity of ESM measurement acquisition times, instead of the usual track-based updating times. Track updating, using ESM measurements, is accomplished via an extended Kalman filter (EKF)-based algorithm and radar measurement via an alpha-beta tracking algorithm. The integration of data from different sensor types is a logical response to increasingly hostile airborne threats. The technique described in this paper is a straightforward and cost- effective approach for accomplishing that integration.