Provides a state-of-the-art presentation of optimal radar tracking systems based on the sophisticated Altair radar, which uses Kalman filtering to perform optimal long-range tracking of ballistic missile warheads. This engineering example offers a means for explaining Kalman filter theory and many other technical issues critical to the design of a modern optimal radar tracking system, all in arelatively simple manner. Material includes discussion of feedback control, modulation and demodulation of signals, digital sampled-data systems, digital computer simulation, statistical analysis of random signals, detection and tracking processes in a radar system. This study of Altair features a considerable amount of detail concerning the operation of a complex electronic system, thereby presenting a study that is unusual in the unclassified literature. Read Less