The Kongsberg application

Kongsberg’s Joint Strike Missile must operate autonomously in highly contested environments. To increase mission success, the missile has a passive RF sensor that can locate and identify radio frequency emitters. To test and verify this RF direction finding capability in a laboratory, Kongsberg required a multi-channel phase coherent vector signal generator that could be linked to existing test environments.

The Rohde & Schwarz test system can simulate multiple emitters in a dynamic environment in real time, enabling Kongsberg to perform closed-loop testing of the missile system with the passive RF sensor and enabling massive amounts of integrated system testing on the host hardware, without costly flight tests and with a high level of repeatability.

The R&S test solution

Test system overview

The test system includes a scenario simulator that generates pulse descriptor words (PDWs). The PDWs are the basis for generating corresponding RF signals that are then fed to the device under test (DUT).

Scenario simulator

Kongsberg developed an in-house real-time simulation environment that can accurately replicate all aspects of a missile flight. The simulator can generate PDWs for a large number of simultaneous emitters, taking into account positions, attitudes, antenna patterns and propagation. Integration of the Rohde&Schwarz test system closes the loop by generating accurate RF incident signals identical to those at the receiver inputs.

Signal generator interface

Time-synchronized PDWs are sent to the Rohde&Schwarz test system. The PDWs include the phase and amplitude response of the antennas along with other parameters.

Multi-channel radar simulation

The main components of the Rohde&Schwarz test system include two coupled R&S®SMW200A vector signal generators (VSG) and an analog R&S®SMA100B signal generator for the local oscillator (LO) signal. Using a common LO source together with the advanced clock distribution concept of the VSGs ensures accurate, stable and repeatable simulations of relative amplitude, phase and group delay offsets between the RF ports at the reference plane for the DUT input, as required for precise AOA simulations.

RF port alignment

R&S®RF Ports Alignment Software runs predefined and optimized alignment routines for RF signals at the reference plane. RF frequencies, used bandwidth and level range for alignment are configured for the test case. The software together with a network analyzer automatically determines the correction coefficients for all RF ports and loads the data to the Rohde&Schwarz test system.

DUT

The DUT may be the RF sensor or a portion of the subsystem running true operational software on real flight hardware.

Erik Narverud, Team Manager Passive RF Sensor System Integration at Kongsberg

»Rohde&Schwarz was able to offer a system that not only has excellent phase coherence, but also provided a flexible and scalable solution where Kongsberg was able to integrate the signal generator in an existing closed-loop simulation environment.«

If you have any questions please contact us