A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system is able to provide all-weather, day-and-night, high resolution imaging capability in the wide area of interest, and thus is extremely useful in surveillance for both civil and military applications. In this paper, the X-band high-resolution spaceborne SAR system design is described with the key design parameters for the mission and system requirement characterized by the small satellite platform. The SAR imaging mode design technique is presented, and the standard imaging mode design results are analyzed with respect to image quality performance. In line with the system requirement, X-band SAR payload and ground reception/processing subsystems are designed and the key design results are demonstrated with the outstanding performance characteristics. The designed small satellite SAR system shows the wide range of imaging capability, and proves to be an effective surveillance systems in the light weight, high performance and cost-effective points of view.