Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for synchronizing a bistatic inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging radar system using only the signal that travels directly between the transmitter and receiver. In an embodiment, an extracted direct path signal is used as a matched filter reference function. In an embodiment, full pulse compression is used for a matched filter implementation. Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for detecting and extracting the direct path signal and using this direct path signal to synchronize the received signal stream in a bistatic ISAR system.