Radar Report Unclassified Complete

733667-001-019-0018

National Archives and Records Administration

Released
Published
Added to archive
Jun 16, 2026
Department
National Archives and Records Administration
Original size
543 KB
External ID
7657183e69fef48473fa6aded24bd7c1d0435ff40e9b5051f57f7a0de36aca7d
Confidence
85%
Credibility
80%

View original document ↗ hosted at the official government source

Intelligence summary

The document discusses the phenomenon of uncorrelated radar signals, specifically the differences between primary radar returns and secondary beacon returns when tracking aircraft.

Tags & topics

AviationRadar TechnologyUAP Detection Aviation TechnologyRadar SignalsUAP

Extracted timeline

Jun 15, 1987

Document Date (year hint)

Document Date (year hint) for 733667-001-019-0018

Jun 16, 2026

Ingestion Date

Ingestion Date for 733667-001-019-0018

Jun 16, 2026

Document Record Date

Document Record Date for 733667-001-019-0018

Jun 16, 2026

Update Date

Update Date for 733667-001-019-0018

Entities mentioned

Full document text

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

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UNCGRRELATED RADAR SIGNALS 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. --RADAR COMPUTER CELL, 1/4 MILE-- RADAR CELL SAME AIRCRAFT w -- RADAR CELL, 1/4 MILE-- SECONDARY RADAR RETURN (Beacon) (Transponder) PRIMARY RADAR RETURN (Skin~ Surface) =PRIMARY RADAR RETURN =SECONDARY RADAR RETURN ’. (Combined Return) _ Drawing by Paul Steucke March 5, 1987 | | \ sCORRELATED RETURN =UNCORRELATED RETURN