Review of ground surveillance radars and optoelectronic scanning systems for ground target detection

Abstract

This review paper presents a technical overview of contemporary battlefield ground surveillance radars and critically examines their capabilities and inherent limitations from a system and signal-processing perspective. The analysis covers radar architectures, operating principles, detection performance, and key constraints associated with near-ground propagation, clutter non-stationarity, Doppler ambiguities, and scanning trade-offs. The paper compares representative ground surveillance radar systems to show how architectural choices affect achievable detection ranges and target classes in practical deployments. Building on this assessment, the paper reviews optoelectronic sensing systems, with particular emphasis on laser scanning technologies and thermal imaging, in three distinct roles: complementary sensing, radar cueing, and replacement of selected surveillance functions. Drawing on advances originally developed for autonomous vehicle perception and recent studies on optical and thermal object detection, the review discusses how optoelectronic systems may mitigate selected limitations of classical radar-based approaches under favourable operational conditions, especially in the detection and classification of slow-moving personnel and small vehicles. The discussion further highlights the relevance of multi-sensor architectures, integrating radar, optoelectronic and spaceborne sensing, for modern intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance systems.