Robust adaptive radar detection in the presence of steering vector mismatches

In this paper we consider the problem of robust radar detection in the presence of Gaussian disturbance with unknown covariance matrix. We design and assess three new robust adaptive detectors, capable of operating in the presence of unknown discrepancies between the nominal and the actual steering vector. Remarkably the new decision rules exhibit a bounded constant false alarm rate (CFAR) behavior and allow, through the regulation of a design parameter, to trade off target sensitivity with sidelobes energy rejection. Finally computer simulations show that the proposed detectors achieve a visible performance improvement, in many situations of practical interest, over the traditional adaptive detection algorithms, especially in the presence of severe steering vector mismatches.