Design and Fabrication of a Radar Cross Section Reduction Cover for Military Targets

Radar engineers and operators measure the radar return of a given target from a given angle in terms of its Radar Cross Section (RCS), from which they can detect and completely identify that target as its type, direction, and speed. The RCS of a target may have a huge value from one angle and at the same time has a very small value from another angle. So the challenge is to reduce the RCS of any target from as many angles as possible. There are three main ways to going about reducing RCS for any target: absorbing radar waves (skin material), reflecting radar waves that cancel themselves out (skin thickness, “depth” of internal components), and reflecting radar away from its origin (target shape on the design stage, or by covering the target using a cover reflecting radar waves away from its origin at any detection angle). Depending on the last technique and by using a RCS simulation software, we were able to design and fabricate a cover for the military targets which will be able to reduce the RCS of these targets at any angle by minimizing the reflected radar waves towards its antenna by an average value of -15 dB which mean a very good camouflage to these targets. Finally both radar and mechanical measurements results for this cover proves that the practical use of this cover has a wide range in the military application by using this cover in reducing the RCS of the military targets.