Passive location techniques have always been considered an important topic and recently, thanks to digital signal processing (DSP) advances, new methods are being studied and experimented with. The possibility to passively locate radar emitters avoiding transmission is crucial in a variety of military applications, in particular when a flying platform (aircraft or helicopter) is entering an unknown and potentially hostile area. Elettronica SpA (ELT) gave start in 2004 to an experimental campaign in this field with the support and collaboration of the Italian Ministry of Defence (MoD). In this context the following activities were carried out:
– theoretical study (with analytically derived and simulated results) of a passive location algorithm,
– design and development of a passive location demonstrator (PLD) qualified for flight,
– field tests (July 2006) performed in Sardegna (Salto di Quirra).
This paper presents the specific passive location algorithm selected for the field tests illustrating analytical performance prediction. The PLD and the field tests are described and the main results are reported. A location accuracy in the order of 10% of emitter distance has been achieved during experimentation.
