### Clue: Detection system misses a sweet potato covering the end of some ship's rigging (7)
### Answer: YARDARM 
 ### Explanation: Definition: the end of some ship's rigging 
 "radar"(a system for detecting distant objects using radio waves) **minus**(misses) **its 1st** "a " **contained in**(… covering) YAM(in Southern US, any of certain large varieties of sweet potato – though elsewhere, a yam resembles but is botanically different from a sweet potato).