Radar System Engineering

SEC. 151] INTRODCCTIO,\- 589
the principal application may suffer. How far to go with such provisions
and how best to include them are problems that frequently outweigh in
importance any other design problem. N-o rules can be given for guidance
along these lines, but the degree of success to be expected will depend
markedly on the extent to which development specialists are familiar
with problems of operation in the using organization and on the degree to
which representatives of the using organizations have become familiar
with the technical problems, the possibilities, and the limitations of radar.
Requirements for Component Development.—With sufficient care in
design and a sufficiently conservative policy, a radar set might be designed
making use of only those components on which development work has
been completed. Ordinarily the improvement to be gained in system
performance or in general utility by improvement in certain components is
sufficient to warrant component development work. The extent to
which such requirements can safely be included must be determined from
consideration of the time schedule to be met and from a careful, realistic
appraisal of the development time needed. Sound system-design work,
together with performance tests, can serve in a valuable way to direct
component-development work along the most advantageous lines.
Detailed Problems in Design. —General rules for guidance on the many
detailed problems encountered in the development of a radar system
would be extremely difficult to formulate because of the multiplicity of
applications with radically differing requirements. Information accumulated
through experience on a large number of systems can be presented
most easily by outlining the development of successful systems
from the early-idea stage on through to their operational use.
Two typical system developments are described in this chapter:
(I) a high-performance ground-based set for air surveillance and control;
and (2) the AN”/APS-10, a lightweight airborne set for air navigation.
Considerations leading to the selection of these systems are as follows:
1. Substantial development and design effort went into both systems
and important advances resulted.
2. Both systems are relatively simple, and design problems encountered
in their development are more basic in nature and more
generally applicable than in the case of a more elaborate system,
where usually a large proportion of the system is very specialized
in nature.
3. These two systems represent opposite extremes in requirements.
Limitations on factors such as size, \veight, and power requirements
for the ground-based set were largely subordinated to the requirement
for the best possible radar performance. In the case of the
airborne set, severe limits were imposed on weight, size, and similar