RCS of resonant scatterers with attached wires

Abstract

The effects of wire antennas carried on aircraft for HF communication on the radar cross section (RCS) at HF frequencies are studied by comparing the RCSs of a strip, a cylinder, and a rod with and without an attached wire. The RCS is found for broadside incidence and for end-on incidence of the plane wave for scatterer lengths from 0.4 to 3.8 wavelengths, typical of aircraft size at HF frequencies. It is shown that the RCS of such fuselage-like targets with a wire antenna is quite different from that of the targets without the wire. For broadside incidence, the wire contributes a sharp peak-and-trough to the RCS are the wire's fundamental resonant frequency. For end-on incidence the wire considerably enhances the RCS at frequencies making its length odd multiples of the quarter-wave.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>