L&T's Precision Monopulse Tracking Radar (PMTR)

The tracking radars are classified in three major categories according to the techniques employed to obtain information about the position of a target with respect to the radar beam. These techniques are conical scan, sequentially lobed and monopulse.

The monopulse technique was developed for precision target tracking. Beam switching and conical scanning methods are not accurate due to the target scintillation. For example one of the principle difficulties in conical scan systems is the interaction between the lobing rate and the noise modulation components at the same frequency in the return signal. Noise modulation caused by the propeller rotation is particularly undesirable, since errors introduced by such high amplitude noise make it difficult to track a target.

Monopulse radars find their origin in tracking systems. Since the late 1970s, the principle of monopulse has been adapted to suit PSR and SSR systems and is in common operational use world-wide today.

A target will be seen by radar from the moment it enters the main antenna beam or from the moment it is illuminated by the transmitted radar antenna beam. A search radar always makes an error in the determination of the direction of the target because it makes the assumption that the target is situated in the direction of the axis of the main beam of the antenna. This error is of the order of the beam width of the main antenna beam.

L&T's Precision Monopulse Tracking Radar (PMTR) is a state-of-the-art auto tracking radar designed for fast acquisition and tracking of satellite launch vehicles & re-entry vehicles or missiles.

PMTR is available in C-Band & S-Band versions in fixed installations & transportable configuration.

Key Features:

Skin & Beacon mode tracking
Open System VME64x Bus Architecture
Touch-screen Operator Console
FPGA based signal processing
Real-time display, data storage & replay
3 Channel Digital Receiver with high speed sampling
IRIG-B or GPS Timing & Synchronization
Coherent-On-Receive for Doppler extraction (optional) Fixed installation or Transportable configuration
Auto-Levelling (Transportable version)
OpenGL & VxWorks for real-time operation
Distributed processing on Dual Ethernet
Automated Test and Calibration
Electro Optics Tracking
Star Calibration (Optional)

Typical Tracking Range

C-Band Transponder mode - 4300 Km
S-Band Transponder mode - 3500 Km
C-Band Skin mode - 260 Km
S-Band Skin mode - 180 Km