IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - January 2023 - 36

Joint STARS-The Start of 50 Years of All Speed Surface Moving Target Detection and Tracking
Germanyvia theFulda Gapsince basedonits relatively low
operating altitude and its relatively high operating radar frequency,
it is doubtful that it would have been able to successfully
detect tank-like vehicles on the relatively narrow region
that was sandwiched between relatively heavy forest vegetation.
Instead, its deployment to the Iraq-Kuwait region,
which consisted of nearly flat desert terrain, was nearly ideal
for the Joint STARS radar mission.
Iraqi tanks and support vehicles were readily detected in
Figure 7.
USAF Lockheed Martin TR-1.
the desert environment and, with the precision locations of
these vehicles passed to the NATO forces, the attacking convoys
were quickly intercepted and forced to retreat. In fact,
even when the retreating vehicles decided to make their way
back to Iraq via otherwise untraveled routes to try to avoid
the airborne attack platforms, their new routes were also
quickly detected by the Joint STARS platform and, as a
result, their convoys were continued to be tracked by the
Joint STARS system and destroyed by the NATO platforms.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
Figure 8.
USAF E-8 (derivative ofBoeing 707-300).
definitely a more valuable asset, it was decided that the role
of the Joint STARS system would be one of only surveillance
and target acquisition and would not explicitly include
the attack capabilities originally demonstrated by its tie-in
with the ground- or air-launched terminally guided submunitions
(or TGSMs) that were an integral part of the Pave
Mover system demonstrations. Thus, the STARS acronym
portion of the system got was changed from " Surveillance
and Target Attack Radar System " to " Surveillance, and Target
Acquisition Radar System. "
JOINT STARS AS A BATTLEFIELD SURVEILLANCE
SYSTEM
The first Joint STARS systems were completed in the late
1990s, and although most of the significant performance
aspects of the system are still classified, the role that it
played in Middle East conflicts has been extensively
reported in the open literature.
In some respects, it was fortunate that it never had to be
deployed in its intended role of preventing the hypothesized
massive tank invasion by the former Soviet Union into West
36
In the intervening years since thwarting the Iraqi invasion
of Kuwait, the Joint STARS platform has continued to be
deployed in hotspot areas around the world and has continued
to be a decisive asset in maintaining peace in the
regions where it has operated. Additionally, the radar technology
developed and incorporated into the JOINT
STARS system has continued to grow and evolve over the
50 years that has elapsed since its initial development.
New advanced development programs based on the Joint
STARS technology have been numerous with proposed
variants being considered by both U.S. and European
agencies with installations visualized on more modern airborne
and space-based platforms [6]. However, the develFigure
9.
Joint STARS display of Iraqi army forces retreating from Kuwait
border. Note off-road convoys attempting to evade detection,
tracking, and subsequent attack.
IEEE A&E SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
JANUARY 2023

IEEE - Aerospace and Electronic Systems - January 2023

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