Photonics-based Integrated Radar Jamming and Secure Communication System at Ka-band

The integrated radar jamming and secure communication system providing both false target and high physical layer transmission security will play an important role in future electronic warfare systems. In this letter, we present and experimentally validate a novel photonics-based integrated system that combines radar jamming with secure communication. The system incorporates velocity and range false targets generation for effective radar deception jamming, along with a secure communication function boasting a remarkable key space of 10 ¹⁵⁶ with the help of Li's hyperchaotic model. The Ka-band radar deception jamming and chaotic encrypted communication signals are simultaneously generated by a photonic frequency upconverter, which consists of a Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM), an optical filter, an in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) modulator, and dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (DDMZM), and a photodetector (PD). In a proof-of-concept experiment, the generated velocity deception jamming signal extended beyond 40 GHz, achieving a remarkable spurious suppression ratio of over 30 dB. The range deception jamming is also investigated. Meanwhile, the chaotic encrypted 4 Gbaud 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16QAM) and 32 quadrature amplitude modulation (32QAM) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signals over a distance of 1 m are successfully demonstrated. The proposed scheme can reduce enemy radar detection capabilities and enhance communication security ability, which is required by future electronic warfare systems.