EW Simulation

Hardware-in-the-loop EW Environment Simulation refers to injecting into an Electronic Warfare (EW) system a realistic mix of pulsed and Continuous Wave (CW) RF signals such as the system might experience in a real-world radar environment.

Hardware units that create such signal mixes are known as EW Environment Generators or simulators.  They are indispensable tools for developing and testing EW systems.

Varilog has over twenty years of experience in EW environment simulation with contributions ranging from digital hardware design and embedded processors to software development and full simulator system integration and test.  We recently developed a revolutionary new Digital Generation technology which breaks some old signal fidelity barriers while providing high total pulse densities in the million-pulse-per-second range.

The VariGenTM Modeling Advantage

With VariGenTM technology, an EW analyst has at his disposal two powerful techniques for emitter description:  the Basic Emitter Description Method, which is suitable for most conventional radars, and the Segmented Emitter Description method, which is adequate to describe phased-array radars and telemetry-type emitters exhibiting Pulse Code Modulation.

The Basic Method is intuitive, easy to use, and allows efficient interaction with the key parameters of an emitter mode all within a single window.  Using the Basic Method, the analyst specifies the "type" of the emitter mode with respect to primary domains of PRI, RF, Scan, and Modulation on Pulse (MOP).  According to the type-selections made, the editor software modifies the window to show the other required or optional parameters implied by the type-selections.

The Segmented Emitter Description Method allows the analyst to describe an individual emitter mode as moving rapidly through various patterns of PRI, RF, pulsewidth, and Scan.  Scan segments can be timed independently of PRI/pulsewidth or RF segments or, upon hitting their limits, can trigger transitions of the non-scan segments.  Conversely, PRI/pulsewidth or RF segments can be set up to make transitions based either on time or number of pulses output and optionally can be set to trigger scan segment transitions.  Individual scan segments can be oriented relative to the host platform's body axes or to a platform being tracked.  Multiple simultaneous beams are accommodated within the framework.  In addition, the framework allows systematic description PCM-type PRI patterns such as seen in weapon-associated telemetry signals.  

This method provides a fully graphical, flowchart-like presentation of the emitter, with which the user interacts as though creating a block diagram.

The Segmented Emitter format makes it possible for a VariGenTM simulator to create high-fidelity signal replicas of Electronically Scanned (e.g., phased-array) radars exhibiting complex behaviors consistent with  track-while-scan functionality.  Other radars using a combination of mechanical scanning and beam-steering in elevation, with coordinated changes in PRI and pulsewidth, can also be accurately modeled.

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