Radar Low Altitude Target Detection and Prevention：Progress and Prospects

With the rapid development of the low-altitude economy，low-altitude targets such as unmanned aerial vehicles （UAVs） have been widely applied in fields like logistics，agricultural plant protection，and emergency rescue. These targets are characterized by low flight altitude，slow movement speed，and small size （commonly known as “low-slow-small”），which put extremely high demands on surveillance systems. As a core detection method，radar is in urgent need of enhancing its ability to accurately detect and classify low-altitude targets such as birds and UAVs in complex backgrounds. This paper makes a comparative analysis of major low-altitude detection means，systematically reviews the progress of radar detection and recognition technologies for birds and UAVs，and focuses on the applications of typical systems based on digital array pan-search radar，external radiation source radar，and meteorological radar. It expounds on the key role of radar low-altitude detection in scenarios such as airport bird strike prevention and UAV countermeasures，and discusses emerging technical directions like distributed radar and integrated communication-sensing detection. Finally，it looks ahead to future developments in waveform optimization design，intelligent information processing，and other aspects.