Radar imaging diagnosis and analysis of typical structure on aircraft

Stealth aircraft are gradually favored by various countries. Evaluating the target’s stealth ability and identifying the direction for improving stealth performance is crucial in the aircraft stealth design work. As for the high-frequency radar, the scattering characteristics of aircraft targets exhibit “sparsity”, and the scattering field follows the principle of locality. The scattering distribution of the target presents as a series of discrete isolated scattering centers. Given the advantages of high resolution and the ability to accurately reflect the spatial position of scattering points in inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) images, by using simulation methods this article analyzes the morphology of scattering points in ISAR images corresponding to different scattering mechanisms. It establishes the correlation between typical geometry and imaging scattering points. The main scattering paths corresponding to six typical aircraft structures, including spheres, cylinders, prisms, cones, cylindrical cavities, and S-shaped cavities, are extracted. Strong scattering point diagnosis and evaluation based on radar imaging are carried out for two different types of stealth drones, and the conclusion is drawn that the main scattering sources of the two types of drones are concentrated in the intake duct.