Project 2 — B-21 Standoff Emitter Geolocation#
Background#
In Block 2 you learned to listen: a radar warning receiver hears a threat emitter and measures its angle of arrival (L13), and crossing bearings from different points locates the emitter (L14). This project turns that skill into an operational product. A B-21 on a standoff orbit can hear the radars of an integrated air-defense system long before it must enter their lethal range. Each RWR bearing is a line of position; cross several of them, taken from different points along the aircraft’s path, and the lines intersect at a fix. The precision of that fix — not merely its existence — is what decides whether the location is good enough to cue a weapon. Your group is the B-21 mission-planning cell: a strike package needs weapon-quality locations for the emitters defending a target area so a standoff weapon can be cued onto them. You must design a passive collection — where the B-21 flies and how it gathers bearings — that geolocates those emitters precisely enough to cue the weapon (\(\mathrm{CEP} \le 0.5\) km for the lethal emitters), while keeping the aircraft outside every threat’s engagement range. Accuracy wants you close and moving; survivability wants you far. That tension is the project.
Materials#
Project 2 handout (PDF) — the authoritative tasking, deliverables, and rubric
Project 2 files — everything you are issued, in one place:
IADS_Scenario.csv — emitter priors and keep-out radii
rwr_collection_sim.p — the RWR collection simulator (p-coded; its source stays hidden)
L19_Project2Starter.m — the starter script
If you download the simulator’s two files separately and MATLAB warns that the p-file “is older than source code file”, that is only the download timestamps: the help file is comments, nothing is out of date. The zip above avoids it.
The MATLAB collection simulator rwr_collection_sim.p (a p-coded function — call it like any function; its source stays hidden) and the starter code/L19_Project2Starter.m are bundled in the course code download with the scenario CSV beside them — the starter flies a sample leg, collects noisy bearings, and cross-fixes one emitter with its error ellipse so your group starts at the geometry, not the plumbing. The true emitter positions are hidden inside the simulator; estimating them is the task.
Schedule#
L19 is a dedicated in-class work day — see L19 — Project 2 Work Day.
L20: slides (PDF) and code due before class; 10-minute presentation + 5 minutes Q&A, every member speaking — see L20 — Project 2 Presentations.
The rubric includes an innovation bonus of up to +5% for going beyond the baseline ask — a non-obvious collection geometry, an honest negative result, or reusable code. Worth planning for from the start; details in the handout. A second +5% accuracy bonus goes to the one team whose three reported fixes land closest to the true emitter positions (smallest total radial error, judged against the positions hidden in the simulator), provided the collection honors the cut budget and the keep-outs and the seed and code reproduce the fixes.