Simulator for advanced fighter radar EPM development

In order to develop electronic protection measures (EPM) for airborne intercept radars, it is necessary to fully understand the often complex effects of different types of electronic countermeasure (ECM) techniques on the radar operation. To aid in this effort, a software-based high-fidelity simulator called SAFIRE has been developed. SAFIRE models target clutter and ECM signal returns on a pulse-by-pulse basis for arbitrarily long scenario durations. Conventional air-to-air processing modes that are typically used in airborne intercept radars for search and track functions are also modelled. The capabilities of SAFIRE are described, with particular emphasis on the ECM model. The ECM model is based on a modern coherent jammer which uses digital radio frequency memory (DRFM) technology to generate false targets and ‘smart’ noise for sophisticated ECM techniques. Sample results from SAFIRE are presented to illustrate its utility in analysing the effects of such ECM techniques on the radar processing. Benchmark timing results for SAFIRE code execution are also provided, which indicate that for many jamming scenarios of interest, the code execution is only about five times slower than real time. This is a significant feature since the scenario durations that are required for these studies are often relatively long.