A method for automatic target recognition in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, comprising: capturing a real SAR image of a potential target at a real aspect angle and a real grazing angle; generating a synthetic SAR image of the potential target by inputting, from a potential target database, at least one three-dimensional potential target model at the real aspect angle and the real grazing angle into a SAR regression renderer; and, classifying the potential target with a target label by comparing at least a portion of the synthetic SAR image with a corresponding portion of the real SAR image using a processor.