Advanced radar technologies
European Comission
Objective :
General objective
Passive and active radio-frequency (RF) systems in general and surveillance radar systems in particular remain vital assets for supporting multi-domain operations: incl. air and air defence missions, as well as ground/maritime operations.
Management of the electromagnetic spectrum has increased in importance. Radar operation must be compatible with other communication and control systems running concurrently. Management of emission and sensing in both space and frequency increases the systems covertness. It also improves the system’s ability to discriminate reliably signals coming from passive and civilian sources as well as active disturbances such as jammers and decoys.
Emerging technologies lead to the increased appearance of threats that are difficult to detect and track due to their low radar cross-section (RCS) (e.g., stealth technologies), manoeuvring characteristics (e.g., hypersonic weapon systems, slow-moving airborne units) or saturation attack tactics. Facing such a wide spectrum of threats (in terms of variation of speed, angle of approach and altitude), existing surveillance systems are reaching their limits in terms of detection range, angular domain coverage, and tracking capabilities. Specific operating modes (e.g., multistatic configurations) can improve detection and tracking performance. They however lead to an increased requirement on multiple beams forming. Proper detection, recognition and classification of different targets in a variety of operational conditions also requires a finely tuneable band.
Specific objective
Those operational and technical challenges can be met by future systems with:
- agile digital beamforming to optimise observation time, volume coverage and detection reliability
- System characteristics such as wide or ultra-wide band coverage, low noise, high coherence
- Software defined waveforms with high degree of flexibility and use of multiple bands
- Data processing functions to enhance detection performance, target recognition and classification, notably with respect to new threats
In order to be operated in various conditions and to be integrated in various platform, specific requirements moreover apply to the dimensions, weight and energy consumption of the radar modules (e.g., through miniaturization or grouping of functions in small electronic units) as well as their materials and electronics design to ensure optimal operability in harsh conditions. Efforts are also aiming at integrating multiple functions (radar, communication, electronic warfare) in a single radio frequency system for multi-role systems (e.g., see call PADR-EMS-03-2019).
Scope :
Scope and types of activities
Scope
Recent research and development efforts in the field of radar and electronic warfare systems have the goal to create more flexible and adaptive systems in terms of modes of operation and beamforming. At the same time, new technologies offer possibilities to explore different frequency (or bandwidth) ranges while maintaining a high signal-to-noise ratio. A further objective is to integrate more functions, including internal computing capacities, while responding to the operational restrictions in terms of size, weight and power consumption and cost (SWaP-C).
The scope of this call topic focusses on electronic components and their integration that help to accomplish the above-mentioned goals by achieving:
- improved size/weight/power ratios through miniaturisation and system integration
- Integration of new technologies to increase the system’s adaptability to environments and operational scenarios.
- Demonstration of agile and precise radar beam steering and detection performance.
The following enabling technologies serve as examples for the improvement and integration scope of this topic, without excluding other relevant technologies:
- direct sampling technologies able to perform data conversion in any radar frequency band, reducing the RF front-end complexity and maximizing the miniaturisation;
- hardware and software components for digital beamforming, including using photonic components, that enable generic and reconfigurable digital beamforming, especially with true-time delay, broadband characteristics, multi-beam capability;
- Hardware and software that would allow real time signal and data processing coming from digitized received signals at radiating element level in order to extract and store the information on targets including detection, tracking and classification;
- Components that enable the generation of extremely stable radio-frequency signals
- Antenna components that emit in a broad frequency band with low spurious emissions to adapt to the environment, e.g., by exploring fully polarimetric active electronically scanned array (AESA) antennas which are more robust against interferences and can enable enhanced performance in terms of detection and classification.
Proposals should target a substantial technological advancement in order to bring the considered components to a maturity level corresponding to laboratory testing or higher (technology readiness level TRL> 4).
Furthermore, proposals may include complementary aspects on:
- application of artificial intelligence as a means of enhancing target detection, classification and identification performance, notably with regards to new threats, including to enable cognitive radar concepts.
- Integration aspects (such as interfaces with other sub-subsystems and data exchange formats) including high data rate transfer to other sub-systems (software and/or hardware aspects), in particular enabling distributed radar setup and Command and Control integration
This topic complements past and ongoing research and technology efforts supported by the EU, e.g., through the calls PADR-EMS-03-2019, PADR-EDT-02-2018 and the calls EDF-2021-SENS-R-RADAR, EDF-2021-MATCOMP-R-RF as well as Member States’ and Norway’s efforts, including in the EDA framework.
Types of activities
The following types of activities are eligible for this topic:
Types of activities
Eligible?
(art 10(3) EDF Regulation)
Yes
(a) Activities that aim to create, underpin and improve knowledge, products and technologies, including disruptive technologies, which can achieve significant effects in the area of defence (generating knowledge)
(mandatory)
Yes
(b) Activities that aim to increase interoperability and resilience, including secured production and exchange of data, to master critical defence technologies, to strengthen the security of supply or to enable the effective exploitation of results for defence products and technologies (integrating knowledge)
(mandatory)
Yes
(c) Studies, such as feasibility studies to explore the feasibility of new or upgraded products, technologies, processes, services and solutions
(mandatory)
Yes
(d) Design of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology as well as the definition of the technical specifications on which such design has been developed, including partial tests for risk reduction in an industrial or representative environment
(mandatory)
(e) System prototyping of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology No
(f) Testing of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology No
(g) Qualification of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology No
(h) Certification of a defence product, tangible or intangible component or technology No
(i) Development of technologies or assets increasing efficiency across the life cycle of defence products and technologies No
Among other tasks that the applicants deem necessary, the following tasks must be performed as part of the mandatory activities of the project:
* Generating knowledge:
+ Research on software and hardware solutions for processing digital signals collected after RF direct sampling for sensors
+ Investigation of technologies and components for wideband or multiband direct sampling
+ Exploration of innovative antenna design
+ Investigate cognitive approaches that enables adaptability of the system to the environment and the scenario.
+ Investigation of technologies and components for ultra-low phase noise oscillators
+ Investigation of improvement of SWaP-C for the considered components.
The proposal may also address optionally the following tasks under this activity:
*
+ Prepare suitable model of targets, threats and environment for training artificial intelligence (AI) -based algorithms;
* Integrating knowledge:
+ Explore scenarios and algorithms to improve the performance in scenarios including low RCS targets and highly manoeuvring targets such as hypersonic ones.
+ Explore the applicability or adoption of components and technologies from civil applications to defence designs
The proposal should moreover address the following tasks under this activity:
*
+ Investigation of solutions, such as algorithms, to increase system resilience against Cyber Electro Magnetic Activities (CEMA) and similar threats
+ Investigate “secure by design” technologies that can be used to increase system resilience in case of cyber-attacks;
* Studies
+ Selection of relevant operational scenarios
+ Exploitation of numerical simulations, e.g., based on digital twins, for testing new hardware and software solutions
+ Study of advanced antenna architectures, including innovative thermal management solutions and material, reducing size, weight and power consumption (acceptable SWaP for airborne applications) while providing enhanced surveillance and tracking capabilities;
The proposal may address the following tasks under this activity:
*
+ Study on technology for sharing and distributing classified data from RF sensor systems;
+ Study on the use of AI techniques for system design and concept
* Design
+ Design of digital beamforming and testing in a laboratory environment
+ Design on-board computing solutions for deployment of signal and data processing algorithms enabling enhanced and real-time computing capabilities and demonstration of performance in a laboratory environment;
+ Design of digital twins for testing of new hardware and software solutions and demonstration in a laboratory environment;
+ Design of advanced antenna architectures, including innovative thermal management solutions and material, reducing size, weight and power consumption (acceptable SWaP for airborne applications) and demonstration in a laboratory environment;
+ Validation of the adaptive capabilities of the system by tests in a simulated environment and in a controlled environment.
Functional requirements
Proposals should address technologies and solutions that
* Integrating wide bandwidth components and building blocks for achieving better detection, tracking and, classification performances of radio-frequency sensor systems, including for challenging threats;
* Enabling versatility and reconfigurability with respect to system functions and operational modes (e.g., tracking modes, imaging modes, beam modes, waveforms)
* Enabling adaptability to the scenario and the operational conditions
* Supporting innovative antenna design (e.g., ubiquitous approach decoupling the observed area from the physical antenna position, conformal arrays)
* Enabling operation in multi-static radio-frequency system architectures, especially taking into account synchronisation issues;
* Capable of coping with increased data rate and volume with respect to signal acquisition and data processing
* Demonstrating modular and scalable architecture with suitable weight, size and power consumption (SWaP) to be implemented over a variety of platforms (including airborne applications as well as unmanned vehicles)
* Ensuring compatibility with simultaneously operated civil systems (including telecommunication applications) and defence systems;
* Ensuring interoperable interfaces and data formats with other military and civil sensor systems.
Expected Impact : * Contribution to the capacity and the technological autonomy of technological and industrial actors in the EU Member States and Norway to develop new radio-frequency systems. * Building capability to define, develop and operate radio-frequency systems for surveillance, detection, tracking and classification of objects that are difficult to detect and track in increasingly difficult environments and operating conditions. * Increased flexibility of radio-frequency systems to create multifunctional, fully digital systems, able to adapt to the situation and the environment. * Enhancement of the integration of radio-frequency systems in distributed control and surveillance platforms.
- Admissibility conditions: described in section 5 of the call document
Proposal page limits and layout: described in section 5 of the call document. Application Forms are available in the Submission System
Eligible countries: described in section 6 of the call document
Other eligibility conditions: described in section 6 of the call document
Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in section 7 of the call document
Evaluation and award:
Award criteria, scoring and thresholds: described in section 9 of the call document
Submission and evaluation processes: described in section 8 of the call document and in the Online Manual
Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in section 4 of the call document
- Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in section 10 of the call document
Call document s :
Standard a pplication f orm (EDF ) — call- specific application forms will be available in the Submission System at the opening of the call.
Detailed budget table (EDF-RA ) — the form will be available in the Submission System at the opening of the call.
Additional documents:
EDF Work Programmes 2022 – Part 2 and 2023 – Part 1
EU Financial Regulatio n 2018/1046
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual