What is Radar Cross Section?

The Radar Cross-Section of a target is the area that intercepts the radar's transmitted signals and reflects them back to the radar receiver.

When a radar pulse is transmitted by a transmitter, it hits the target and gets scattered isotropically and only some part of it bounces back to the receiver. The radar measures the power density of the reflected signals in decibels (dB), which is then converted into square meters to realize the size of the target.

Radar cross section is the ratio of backscatter power to the power density received by the target. It is denoted by  with a unit of m².

Factors on which Radar Cross Section depends

• Frequency of the radar signal
• Distance between the target and the radar.
• Material of the target
• The aspect and the orientation of the target to the radar source

Radar cross section (RCS) of the target is a primary measure of stealth, or low observability (LO) of an aircraft, missiles, or ships.