Pointing Accuracy and Dynamic Range in a Steered Beam Adaptive Array

The performance of a steered beam adaptive array as a function of the beam pointing error is examined. The purpose is to determine how close the steered beam has to be to the actual desired signal arrival angle for good performance. It is shown that the beam pointing error that can be tolerated is essentially a question of dynamic range. The greater the desired signal dynamic range that must be accommodated by the array, the more accurate the beam pointing angle must be.