Until recently, when multi-polarization radars were introduced, not all the fundamental properties of an electromagnetic wave were being exploited fully to detect and identify targets. An attempt is made, to re-unite in a single article, the complex RCS (both magnitude and phase), polarization (coherent) and depolarization signatures of two types of targets-simple and complex. The objective is to concentrate on the basic scattering components that all targets possess and to model them on the basis of their high-frequency response to an incident electromagnetic wave. Detailed equations of the scattering process and the signatures that result from them are presented. It is discussed how the amplitude, phase, polarization and depolarization signatures can be utilized in the discrimination stage of the recognition process.