| Radar Cross Section (RCS) approximations are readily available through numerical simulations. However, these values must be validated using physical measurements. Obtaining RCS measurements of electrically large, complex military platforms is a difficult and expensive task. Taking RCS measurements of full scale targets on outdoor ranges are limited to existing platforms and the ranges are costly to operate. Although measurements of scaled models of large aircraft or ships can be performed in an anechoic chamber, the frequency of operation increases proportionally to the scaling factor applied to the model. This requires the use of sub-millimetric equipment which is cost prohibitive. It is proposed that RCS measurements of large, complex scaled models could be conducted in microwave anechoic chambers by segmenting a scaled model into several parts and measuring the RCS of these individual parts separately. The full RCS measurement would then be reconstructed by a vector sum of the parts' RCS measurements. Preliminary work in this field will demonstrate that such a technique is viable for simple structures. This work could then be developed further to provide military platform designers with the means of validating Radar Cross Section data for their models prior to the production of the platform. This research will investigate the degree of reliability and the sources of error of this methodology. |
