Radar Report Unclassified Complete

733667-001-011-0012

National Archives and Records Administration

Released
Published
Added to archive
Jun 16, 2026
Department
National Archives and Records Administration
Original size
2.3 MB
External ID
ea34175e158a0af16f069fa79e8855e7730effff75aea8e4017bbeb9672cb142
Confidence
85%
Credibility
80%

View original document ↗ hosted at the official government source

Intelligence summary

The document discusses the phenomenon of uncorrelated radar returns from aircraft, specifically detailing the differences between primary radar signals and secondary transponder signals.

Tags & topics

AviationRadar TechnologyUAP Detection Aviation TechnologyRadarSignal AnalysisUAP

Extracted timeline

Jun 15, 1987

Document Date (year hint)

Document Date (year hint) for 733667-001-011-0012

Jun 16, 2026

Ingestion Date

Ingestion Date for 733667-001-011-0012

Jun 16, 2026

Document Record Date

Document Record Date for 733667-001-011-0012

Jun 16, 2026

Update Date

Update Date for 733667-001-011-0012

Entities mentioned

Full document text

813 characters, transcribed via OCR. Errors reflect the source scan. Compare with the original ↗

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. - | ~ — - . ad ~ “ ‘ . « nn Oe en ees a wo a ome « bt w dp ee wo - ww ) A 5 A ly An "uncorrelated primary and beacon(secondary) return on a radar screen occurs: when the radar energy that is sent up toward the aircraft (primary signal) returns off the surface of the aircraft at a slightly different moment than the beacon (secondary) transponder signal and the two do not match up as being at the same place or same computer radar cell. = f\— -~-RADAR COMPUTER CELL, 1/4 MILE-- RADAR CELL SAME AIRCRAFT \ (Cross{ng Cell) — Ur =i Yy, RADAR <a, RETURN WN - -- RADAR CELL, 1/4 MILE-- (Beacon) (Transponder ) /— PRIMARY RADAR RETURN (Skin- Surface) =PRIMARY RADAR RETURN =SECONDARY RADAR RETURN x =CORRELATED RETURN (Combined Return) Drawing by Paul Steucke March 5, 1987 =UNCORRELATED RETURN