Abstract The motion compensation errors of the airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR,) using the typical aircraft Inertial Navigation System (INS) are analyzed. It is conduded that the navigation errors of INS are of low frequency and divergent. The INS errors cari be kept in a relativelv small.range at.the beginning stage. Therefore, the high resolution SAR, imaging can be achieved by combining INS with clutterlock and autofocus mothods.