Simulator for advanced fighter radar EPM development

In order to develop electronic protection measures (EPM) for airborne inter cept radars, it is necessary to fully understand the often complex effects of different types of electronic countermeasure (ECM) techniques on the rad ar operation. To aid in this effort, a software-based high-fidelity simulat or called SAFIRE has been developed. SAFIRE models target clutter and ECM s ignal returns on a pulse-by-pulse basis for arbitrarily long scenario durat ions. Conventional air-to-air processing modes that are typically used in a irborne intercept radars for search and track functions are also modelled. The capabilities of SAFIRE are described with particular emphasis on the EC M model. The ECM model is based on a modern coherent jammer which uses digi tal radio frequency memory (DRFM) technology to generate false targets and 'smart' noise for sophisticated ECM techniques. Sample results from SAFIRE are presented to illustrate its utility in analysing the effects of such EC M techniques on the radar processing. Benchmark timing results for SAFIRE c ode execution are also provided which indicate that for many jamming scenar ios of interest, the code execution is only about five times slower than re al time. This is a significant feature since the scenario durations that ar e required for these studies are often relatively long.