REPORT ON THE NEW IEEE RCS MEASUREMENT STANDARD IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

Dr. Eric K. Walton

Chairman of the Antenna Standards Committee IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society The Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory 1320 Kinnear Road; Columbus, Ohio 43212

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

y Introduction to IEEE standards.

What is a standard? What is the process? y History of the measurement standard. y Status of the standard. Purpose of the standard. Where are we now? y Conclusions.

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

The new standard is written for

y The personnel responsible for the operation of such test ranges

What should they know What are their responsibilities

    

Basic concepts Range testing (is it really a plane wave?)) Calibration Data collection and documentation Uncertainty analysis and reporting

y For the users of data from such ranges

What should they know What should they expect

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

Standards Project P1502. y This standard (actually a recommended practice) is sponsored by the Antenna Standards Committee (ASC) of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) (Michael Francis, Chair). y The title is IEEE Recommended Practice For Radar
y This talk discusses the RCS measurement standard, IEEE

Cross-Section Test Procedures.

Subcommittee of the IEEE AP-S ASC (Dr. Eric Walton, Chair). y Published on 7 September, 2007 y The document is now available from the IEEE Standards Association as IEEE Standard 1502-2007

y The Standard was generated by the Radar Cross Section

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Introduction to IEEE Standards

y

What is a standard? A standard is a published document that sets out specifications and procedures designed to ensure that a material, product, method, or service meets its purpose and consistently performs to its intended use. y Why are standards necessary and important? Standards solve issues ranging from product compatibility to addressing consumer safety and health concerns. Standards also simplify product development and reduce non-value-adding costs thereby increasing a user's ability to compare competing products. They also are fundamental building blocks for international trade.

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What is the Standard Process?

y Project approval y Develop draft standards y Ballot draft y IEEE-SA standards board

approval y Publish standard y Standard Maintenance and Review

Note: This diagram is from the IEEE-SA web site

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

For more information on the Process

http://standards.ieee.org/resources/glance.html

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

History of the RCS Standard
y The earliest versions of the RCS standards were written

back in the early 80s by Dr. Eugene Knott.

y This version languished in the files until rewritten by

several contributors, notably Dr. Robert Dibdall.

y During these days, there were many concerns about

security of RCS measurements and those in industry and government did not wish to contribute.
y Additionally, many considered their range techniques

and capabilities trade secrets and did not wish to contribute.

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

More Recent History
y During the Defense slowdown of the late 1980s and

early 1990s, the standard project came close to expiration with IEEESA (A standard can only be written within an assumed project window or its charter is withdrawn.). y To avoid that, the project request was resubmitted on May 20, 1994 and Dr. Eric Walton was appointed as the Chair of the RCS Standards Subcommittee of the IEEE AP-S ASC. y The new standard project was number P-1502, RCS Measurement Standard Practices.
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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

y 1502-2007 is a standard practices guide.

Provide recommended practices. Does not say, thou shall or shall not. y It is NOT part of the DoD certification process for RCS measurements. Does include the essential tenets, such as uncertainty evaluation. Does recommend process be documented. This standard should be part of your Range Book.
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Why a Recommended Practices Versus a Standard?

To keep the document to a reasonable length. y Consideration of the difficult approval cycle for standards. y Acknowledgement that:
y

RCS measurements have many goals There are many ways to make an RCS measurement depending on the goal of the test. y Helpful tool for the DoD certification process (Range Book Reference).

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

Key Events That Occurred During This Time Frame.
y The involvement of the National Institute of Technology

(NIST) in RCS measurement uncertainty. y The completion of the Department of Defense (DoD) demonstration project for range certification.

This provided new life for the project as new members were recruited and practitioners were more interested in documenting their procedures so that they could be included, with references, in their range books.

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A Short, Informal (and perhaps incomplete) List Of Contributors since 1985

Mr. C. Allen, Dr. D. Bodnar, Mr. A. Buck, Dr. R. Dibdall, Dr. N. Currie, Dr. J. Davis, Dr. W. English, Dr. M. Francis Prof. S. Gillespie, Dr. G. Hagn, Mr. J. Hanfling, Dr. R. Hansen, Mr. E. Hart, Dr. D. Hess, Dr. R. Jost, Dr. E. Joy, Prof. W. Kahn Dr. Brian Kent Mr. J. Lemanczyk, Dr. R. Mack, Dr. D. Mensa, Dr. L. Muth, Dr. H. Oltman,

Prof. A. Olver, Dr. W. Parnell,

Prof. H. Raemer, Dr. A. Repjar, Dr. A. Roederer, Dr. A. Schell, Dr. G. Tricoles, Mr. M. Tuley, Mr. E. A. Urbanik, Mr. R. Wittmann, Dr. J. Young.

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IEEE APS RCS MEAS STANDARD TABLE OF CONTENTS

4. 1. 2. Overview The RCS Measurement process 1. Background 5. 2. Purpose 3. Standardized Test Procedures Measurement Techniques 1. Outdoor & Indoor 6. 2. Plane wave characterization 3. Instrumentation 4. Target support 5. Averaging 7. 8.

3.

RCS Imaging Concepts for Measurement 1. Selection of measurement parameters 2. Ambiguities 3. Windowing Organizing RCS range documentation 1. ANSI/NCSL Z-540-1994 overview 2. Organizing the RCS range book 3. Third party certification of range book RCS Uncertainty Analysis 1. Uncertainty vs. error 2. Reporting uncertainty 3. Uncertainty analysis Test Planning Summary

* This is a summary, and not a word-for-word TOC

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

FAR FIELD RANGES

Indoor far field

Outdoor (ground bounce etc.)

Indoor tapered chamber

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

Indoor Compact Ranges of various types

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

RANGE ANALYSIS AND CERTIFICATION

ERROR TERMS IN RCS RANGES

SCANNING OF TEST RANGES FOR SPURIOUS SIGNAL AND PLANE WAVE ANALYSIS

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

INSTRUMENTATION ISSUES

Linearity and Dynamic range

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Gain imbalance and offset

Goal of the Document

Helpful guide for the RCS measurement practitioner. y It is not written for the metrologist.
y

Term removed from the document. Written for the one making measurements to learn or observe. y Document can grow over time if a more rigorous treatment is needed.

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LESSONS LEARNED

y It is difficult to create a document by a democratic

committee. y Volunteers working with a fuzzy deadline on a low priority project can drag out the process forever.
y The editor needs to become a dictator at some point.

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Conclusions

y The IEEE APS ASC Subcomittee on RCS is finally

releasing a product. y Upon approval, it will enter into a five year review and update cycle.
y The document is now officially available from the

IEEE SA as 1502-2007

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IEEE Recommended Practice for Radar Cross-Section Test Procedures

Eric K. Walton The Ohio State University ElectroScience Laboratory Columbus, Ohio 43212 Walton.1@osu.edu; 614/292-5051
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References (for this talk)

y The standard 1502-2007 itself. y IEEE Standards Association Operations Manual, IEEE,

New York, 1999 y IEEE Standards Association Web Site, http://standards.ieee.org/sa-mem/why_std.html, IEEE, New York, 2004
y Think Standards,

http://www.thinkstandards.net/index.html, IEEE, New York, 2004

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