Abstract: A method and radar system for detecting a target and verifying its presence to begin tracking and to enable future detections of the same target to be correctly associated with its initial detection uses two separate detections. Each detection provides three components of position measurements (range, elevation, and azimuth). The invention also pertains to an associated method for initiating a target track utilizing a rotating radar antenna having an electronic scanning antenna comprising the steps of: acquiring data representative of one or more of range, elevation and azimuth of a target, calculating target motion, forming multiple models for each degree of freedom of target motion, composing a set of initial state vectors that includes one having predictive validity for the realization of the true measurement errors and target motion.