Differentiate between a 'contact' and a 'track' in radar operations.

• A. A contact is a single radar return; a track is a maintained association of detections over time with estimated kinematics.
• B. A contact is a group of returns; a track is a single return.
• C. A contact is a single radar return; a track is a random grouping of detections.
• D. A contact is a fixed object; a track is a moving object.

Answer: (A)

In radar terms, a contact is a single radar return—the detection of something at one moment in time. A track is the ongoing record built by linking successive detections that belong to the same object across multiple scans, with a computed motion state (such as range, bearing, and velocity) and a history of its previous positions. So a contact tells you “there’s something here now,” while a track tells you “this is the same object over time, with an estimated path and motion." Detections can be grouped into tracks using data association and filtering, and tracks can be predicted forward even when a target isn’t detected in every sweep.