AN/FPS-16 Single Object Tracking Radar

 military, radar station

The AN/FPS-16 is a highly accurate ground-based monopulse single object tracking radar (SOTR), used extensively by the NASA manned space program and the U.S. Air Force. The accuracy of Radar Set AN/FPS-16 is such that the position data obtained from point-source targets has azimuth and elevation angular errors of less than 0.1 milliradian (approximately 0.006 degree) and range errors of less than 5 yards (5 m) with a signal-to-noise ratio of 20 decibels or greater.

The first monopulse radar was developed at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in 1943 to overcome the angular limitations of existing designs. The monopulse technique makes angular determinations simultaneously on each individual received pulse. This improvement in radar technology provides a tenfold increase in angular accuracy over previous fire and missile control radars at longer ranges. The monopulse radar is now the basis for all modern tracking and missile control radars. Although monopulse radar was developed independently and secretly by several countries, R.M. Page from the NRL holds the U.S. patent on this technique.

The monopulse technique was first applied to the Nike-Ajax missile system, an early U.S. continental air defense weapon. Many improvements were made to provide a more compact and efficient monopulse antenna feed and lobe comparison waveguide circuitry, such that monopulse tracking radar became the generally accepted tracking radar system for military and civilian agencies, such as NASA and the FAA.

The NRL's work on monopulse radars eventually led to the AN/FPS-16, developed jointly by NRL and RCA as the first radar designed especially for missile ranges. The AN/FPS-16 was used to guide the first U.S. space satellite launches, Explorer I and Vanguard I, at Cape Canaveral in 1958.


en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AN/FPS-16