A system and apparatus configured to process search radar data based on random matrix theory. During the time that the radar receiver is listening for return target echoes, the raw data stream may be fed to an analog to digital converter to create a sample voltage file. This sample voltage file may be processed by a digital signal processor that computes the eigenvalues of a sample covariance matrix generated for each pulse duration interval. The ratio of the largest to smallest eigenvalue is determined and compared to the system noise eigenvalue ratio. The sensitivity for detecting targets over the present state of the art is expected to be an approximate enhancement factor of one thousand, due to the detection of coherent energy instead of a transmitted waveform. The increase of detection distance for same radar cross section is expected to be an approximate 5.6 enhancement factor.