Eli5: Radar are built to spin around, send out, and capture a signal to create a 360 degree image of the surrounding area that regularly updates.
One would think that you could build a stationary antenna that electronically pulses and limits the area it is searching to do the same thing, removing the complication of the moving parts.
Why isn’t this the norm? And is it even possible?
In: Engineering
> Why isn’t this the norm? And is it even possible?
Yes, there is Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar which uses a computer-controlled antenna array to aim radio waves without moving the antenna. They have been in use since the mid-60’s.
However there are limits to how much their signals can be steered. It can’t steer them around to go completely backwards for example. So either you have multiple antenna arrays to get a 360 degree view, or you just spin the same antenna array around.
Duplicating equipment is expensive, spinning something in a circle is really easy.
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