What can possibly go wrong?

The data that you receive in a radar tracking system is not necessarily the data that you want; there is an awful lot of background noise and interference. One of the main culprits is the weather; rain, hail or snow particles will reflect a radar beam, as well as birds, nearby landmasses and even the odd meteorite or two! The atmosphere is a problem as well; if a radar system and the target are at different altitudes there is a gradual decrease in air pressure between them which can bend or distort a radar beam. Temperature differences can result in a similar effect. Other radar systems in the vicinity can add their own false positives, particularly if they are acting on a similar frequency, and there are many electronic countermeasures in place which hostile aircraft can use to deceive radar systems or even to hide from them completely.

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Perhaps the most well-known countermeasure is chaff, which first made its presence known during the second world war when it was known as "Window"; this was and still is a mass of metallic strips which are designed to float in the atmosphere as long as possible and by reflecting huge quantities of radar waves it can be a very effective method of hiding a real target. Sometimes decoy, undermanned aircraft which are small but have a high radar reflectivity can be launched from the target ship in order to confuse the radar system; and sometimes a high volume of electromagnetic waves can be directed straight towards the antennae itself in order to overwhelm it.

Electronic warfare boils down to a race to produce new defensive techniques as existing ones are overcome by more advanced technology and whilst most modern radar tracking systems are able to function despite these defensive measures their effectiveness can be degraded to the extent that an error, with possibly very serious consequences, can never be completely discounted. Technology is wonderful, but it is certainly not infallible!

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