MSTAR (moving and stationary target acquisition and recognition)

MSTAR stands for moving and stationary target acquisition and recognition. That is the expansion given in the NATO glossary of acronyms and abbreviations (AAP-15).

In NATO technical literature, the abbreviation is tied to automatic target recognition (ATR), radar and synthetic-aperture-radar imagery, and military-target datasets. Canada's Department of National Defence also uses MSTAR as the short name for a different thing, a man-portable radar project. Bid teams that see the acronym in a document should work out which meaning applies before they respond.

What the NATO expansion covers

The NATO expansion describes a technical task: finding a target and recognizing what it is, whether the target is moving or stationary. In NATO research, this sits within automatic target recognition, where software classifies objects detected by radar sensors. A keynote paper in the NATO Science and Technology Organization SET-262 proceedings uses the MSTAR dataset in its work on automatic target recognition.

The MSTAR dataset in NATO research

Beyond the glossary expansion, MSTAR is widely referenced as a dataset. NATO publications describe it as a public collection of radar images of military vehicles, used to develop and test target classifiers. Two NATO papers show this use:

• The SET-311 paper treats MSTAR imagery as radar imagery of military vehicles in target-classification research.
• The SET-095 paper identifies MSTAR as a public dataset used in target-classification studies.

In this sense, MSTAR is a research benchmark. It gives algorithm developers a common set of radar images against which to compare classification methods.

Canada's Man Portable Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar project

In Canadian defence reporting, MSTAR is used for the Man Portable Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar. DND's 2018-19 status report on transformational and major Crown projects lists the Man Portable Surveillance and Target Acquisition Radar (MSTAR) Upgrade (ISS Project). The report names DRS Sustainment System Inc. (SSI) as the contractor.

The same report states that the contract was awarded in June 2017 and that complete delivery was expected by December 2019. It places the project in DND's wider portfolio, alongside the Land Forces Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance System.

This is a separate use of the abbreviation. It is a Canadian Army equipment project, not the NATO expansion and not the radar image dataset.

What MSTAR means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

The NATO meaning of MSTAR is not a Canadian procurement clause, mandatory technical standard or supplier certification. A supplier should not treat the NATO expansion as a bid requirement. When MSTAR appears in a Canadian solicitation, award notice or project report, read the surrounding text to see whether it points to the man-portable radar, to the radar dataset or to something else.

Suppliers tracking radar, sensor or target-recognition work can use CanadaBuys to monitor federal opportunities. The CanadaBuys tender opportunities page lists current solicitations, and the award notices and contract history guidance explains how to review past awards. Searching both with the full Canadian project name as well as the acronym will separate the radar upgrade from unrelated mentions. Suppliers who need to know how DND has described MSTAR in its major project reporting should consult the status report cited above.