Radar signal processing is performed using a plurality of signal processing units onboard a radar sensor unit. One of the signal processing units is designated as the primary processor whereas the remaining signal processing units are designated as secondary processors. Secondary processors, based on their configuration and capability, perform a subset of radar signal processing tasks. Secondary processors transmit a compressed bit stream of their partially processed results to the primary processor. The primary processor decompresses the bit streams received from a plurality of secondary processors, incorporates the partially processed results from a plurality of secondary processors with its locally processed results, performs final detections, and sends the final detections to a remote processor. When secondary processors perform detections in range, Doppler, and angle domains, and sends those to the primary processor, the primary processor employs consensus detection to produce final detections.