16th 3AF Integrated Air & Missile Defence Conference, held in Thessaloniki, Greece
Title: AI-Enhanced Passive Radar: Leveraging 5G Signal Reflectance for Drone Detection
Date: 13 to 15 May 2025
This work presents a novel passive radar system (PRS) architecture for cost-effective and accurate detection and classification of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), addressing critical air defense challenges. Unlike conventional systems that rely on dedicated transmitters, our approach harnesses existing 5G cellular networks, leveraging their high bandwidth, low latency, and MIMO capabilities for enhanced detection performance. An in-house software defined radio (SDR) enables flexible acquisition of 5G signal reflectances, facilitating precise extraction of range-Doppler information. These data are processed using deep learning models fine-tuned with synthetic images from a custom simulator, improving detection accuracy under interference, clutter, and noise. The system demonstrates resilience to electronic warfare and adaptability to evolving threats, with validated high-resolution performance. Its compatibility with 4G and readiness for 6G further support future scalability. By integrating advanced telecommunications and AI-driven analysis, the proposed PRS represents a robust, energy-efficient solution, offering a significant step forward in passive radar technologies for modern air defense