History
Monopulse radar was extremely "high tech" when it was first introduced by Robert M. Page in 1943 in a Naval Research Laboratory experiment. As a result, it was very expensive, labor-intensive due to complexity, and less reliable. It was only used when extreme accuracy was needed that justified the cost. Early uses included the Nike Ajax missile, which demanded very high accuracy, or for tracking radars used for measuring various rocket launches. An early monopulse radar development, in 1958, was the AN/FPS-16, on which NRL and RCA collaborated. The earliest version, XN-1, utilised a metal plate lens. The second version XN-2 used a conventional 3.65 meter parabolic antenna, and was the version which went to production. These radars played an important part in the Mercury, Gemini, and early Apollo missions, being deployed in Bermuda, Tannarive, and Australia, among other places for that purpose. The IRACQ modification was installed on certain of these installations; certainly the one located at Woomera, Australia was so modified. One of the larger installations first appeared in the 1970s as the US Navy's AN/SPY-1 radar used on the Aegis Combat System, and MK-74 radar used on Tartar Guided Missile Fire Control System and research. The cost and complexity of implementing monopulse tracking was reduced and reliability increased when digital signal processing became available after the 1970s. The technology is found in most modern tracking radars and many types of disposable ordnance like missiles.
Read more about this topic: Monopulse Radar
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