Abstract: The invention provides a method of determining the range of a radar signal reflecting object by utilizing a radar frequency carrier wave modulated by a first short code having a first repetition rate and a second code having a bit rate equal to the first code repetition rate. A received echo is first passed to an analogue correlator for correlation against a delayed version of the first code, and the output of the analogue correlator is fed to a digital correlator for correlation therein against the second code. In this way, the high bandwidth (greater range resolution) of analogue correlation can be combined with the lower bandwidth (longer ambiguity function) of digital correlation to provide high resolution target detection without ambiguity and at a fast rate without the need for a very large number of correlators.

Abstract: In order to identify a target a data base is compiled containing records, for each of different known types of object, each record being derived from successive range sweeps of the object as seen from different angles and containing information defining the relative positions of different points of reflection on the object. In order to identify an unidentified object, information from at least one range sweep across it (and preferably a number of such range sweeps taken when viewing the object from different angles) is compared with similar information recorded in the data base to ascertain whether the unidentified object belongs to one of the known types.