Cutting-edge AESA radar like on the F-35 is incredible. It actually looks like a black and white photograph. I think your guess on antennas is roughly correct based on what we know about modern AESA.

Isn't that Synthetic Aperture Radar though? You can get similar results (black and white aerial pictures) by strapping a pretty basic siso radar system on a drone.

I’m honestly not sure what the difference is. I kind of understand SISO, MIMO, and beam steering concepts, but just the basics from nerding out on my Starlink dish.

This is what I’m talking about: https://www.twz.com/f-35-will-get-new-radar-under-massive-up...

Specifically this image: https://www.twz.com/uploads/2023/01/03/20065813381381024.jpg

I don’t know how targeting works, but with this level of resolution, I think basic image algorithms can start to come into play. It blows my mind.

Yes, that looks like regular SAR imagery. Checkout @umbraspace if you want to see some really nice SAR images captured by satellites launched along starlink satellites.

https://twitter.com/umbraspace

Wow - that's awesome!

Any idea if these antennas can be made small/on a PCB, effectively miniaturizing them?

Yup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOmdQnIlnRo&t=1991s

Thanks!