Kill chain (military)

Last updated

The term kill chain is a military concept which identifies the structure of an attack. It consists of:

Contents

Conversely, the idea of "breaking" an opponent's kill chain is a method of defense or preemptive action. [2]

Military

F2T2EA

One military kill chain model is the "F2T2EA", which includes the following phases:

This is an integrated, end-to-end process described as a "chain" because an interruption at any stage can interrupt the entire process. [3] [4]

Previous terminology

The "Four Fs" is a military term used in the United States military, especially during World War II.[ citation needed ]

Designed to be easy to remember, the "Four Fs" are as follows:

Proposed terminology

The "Five Fs" is a military term described by Maj. Mike "Pako" Benitez, an F-15E Strike Eagle Weapons Systems Officer who served in the United States Air Force and the United States Marine Corps.

Designed to update the Kill Chain to reflect updated, autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems, the "Five Fs" are described in "It's About Time: The Pressing Need to Evolve the Kill Chain" [5] as follows:

North Korean nuclear capability

A new American military contingency plan called "Kill Chain" is reportedly the first step in a new strategy to use satellite imagery to identify North Korean launch sites, nuclear facilities and manufacturing capability and destroy them pre-emptively if a conflict seems imminent. The plan was mentioned in a joint statement by the United States and South Korea. [7] [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Military intelligence</span> Information about military opponents

Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a range of sources, directed towards the commanders' mission requirements or responding to questions as part of operational or campaign planning. To provide an analysis, the commander's information requirements are first identified, which are then incorporated into intelligence collection, analysis, and dissemination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goalkeeper CIWS</span> Close-in weapon system

The Goalkeeper CIWS is a Dutch close-in weapon system (CIWS) introduced in 1979. It is an autonomous and completely automatic weapon system for short-range defence of ships against highly maneuverable missiles, aircraft and fast-maneuvering surface vessels. Once activated the system automatically undertakes the entire air defence process from surveillance and detection to destruction, including the selection of the next priority target.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod</span> Lockheed Martin system for military aircraft

The Lockheed Martin Sniper is a targeting pod for military aircraft that provides positive target identification, autonomous tracking, GPS coordinate generation, and precise weapons guidance from extended standoff ranges.

In military science, force multiplication or a force multiplier is a factor or a combination of factors that gives personnel or weapons the ability to accomplish greater feats than without it. The expected size increase required to have the same effectiveness without that advantage is the multiplication factor. For example, if a technology like GPS enables a force to accomplish the same results as a force five times as large without GPS, then the multiplier is five. Such estimates are used to justify the investment for force multipliers.

Defeat in detail, or divide and conquer, is a military tactic of bringing a large portion of one's own force to bear on small enemy units in sequence, rather than engaging the bulk of the enemy force all at once. This exposes one's own units to many small risks but allows for the eventual destruction of an entire enemy force.

Targeting is the process of selecting objects or installations to be attacked, taken, or destroyed in warfare. Targeting systematically analyzes and prioritizes targets and matches appropriate lethal and nonlethal actions to those targets to create specific desired effects that achieve the joint force commander's (JFC's) objectives, accounting for operational requirements, capabilities, and the results of previous assessments. The emphasis of targeting is on identifying resources (targets) the enemy can least afford to lose or that provide him with the greatest advantage, then further identifying the subset of those targets that must be acquired and engaged to achieve friendly success. Targeting links the desired effects to actions and tasks.

Qualified Weapons Instructor (QWI) (queue-why) is a qualification given to graduates of the British Armed Forces Qualified Weapons Instructor courses. It is the equivalent to the United States Air Force (USAF) Weapons School Course or United States Navy (USN) Naval Aviation Warfighting Development Center warfare schools.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-surface warfare</span> Naval combat on the open ocean

Anti-surface warfare is the branch of naval warfare concerned with the suppression of surface combatants. More generally, it is any weapons, sensors, or operations intended to attack or limit the effectiveness of an adversary's surface ships. Before the adoption of the submarine and naval aviation, all naval warfare consisted of anti-surface warfare. The distinct concept of an anti-surface warfare capability emerged after World War II, and literature on the subject as a distinct discipline is inherently dominated by the dynamics of the Cold War.

Battlespace or battle-space is a term used to signify a military strategy which integrates multiple armed forces for the military theatre of operations, including air, information, land, sea, cyber and outer space to achieve military goals. It includes the environment, timeframe and other factors, and conditions that must be understood to successfully apply combat power, protect the force, or complete the mission. This includes enemy and friendly armed forces, infrastructure, weather, terrain, and the electromagnetic spectrum within the operational areas and areas of interest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Target acquisition</span> Identification of a military target entity

Target acquisition is the detection and identification of the location of a target in sufficient detail to permit the effective employment of lethal and non-lethal means. The term is used for a broad area of applications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bomb damage assessment</span>

Bomb damage assessment (BDA), also known as battle damage assessment, is the practice of assessing damage inflicted on a target from a stand-off weapon, most typically a bomb or air launched missile. It is part of the larger discipline of combat assessment. Assessment is performed using many techniques including footage from in-weapon cameras, gun cameras, forces on the ground near the target, satellite imagery and follow-up visits to the target. Preventing information on battle damage reaching the enemy is a key objective of military censorship. For nuclear weapons special techniques may be required due to the extensive damage caused and difficulty in approaching the site.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multiservice tactical brevity code</span> Brevity code for NATO communications

Multiservice tactical brevity codes are codes used by various military forces. The codes' procedure words, a type of voice procedure, are designed to convey complex information with a few words.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United States Army Sniper School</span> Military unit

The U.S. Army Sniper Course trains selected military members assigned to sniper positions in the skills necessary to deliver long-range precision fire and the collection of battlefield information. Students will receive training in fieldcraft skills, advanced camouflage techniques, concealed movement, target detection, range estimation, terrain utilization, intelligence preparation of the battlefield (IPB), relevant reporting procedures, sniper tactics, advanced marksmanship, and staff subjects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Special reconnaissance</span> Intelligence gathering discipline

Special reconnaissance (SR) is conducted by small units, such as a recon team, made up of highly trained military personnel, usually from special forces units and/or military intelligence organizations. Special reconnaissance teams operate behind enemy lines, avoiding direct combat and detection by the enemy. As a role, SR is distinct from commando operations, but both are often carried out by the same units. The SR role frequently includes covert direction of airstrikes and indirect fire, in areas deep behind enemy lines, placement of remotely monitored sensors, and preparations for other special forces. Like other special forces, SR units may also carry out direct action and unconventional warfare, including guerrilla operations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">366th Operations Group</span> Military unit

The 366th Operations Group is the flying component of the 366th Fighter Wing, assigned to the United States Air Force Air Combat Command. The 366th OG is stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">July 12, 2007, Baghdad airstrike</span> Series of air-to-ground attacks conducted in New Baghdad during the Iraqi insurgency

On July 12, 2007, a series of air-to-ground attacks were conducted by a team of two U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters in Al-Amin al-Thaniyah, New Baghdad, during the Iraqi insurgency which followed the invasion of Iraq. On April 5, 2010, the attacks received worldwide coverage and controversy following the release of 39 minutes of classified gunsight footage by WikiLeaks. The video, which WikiLeaks titled Collateral Murder, showed the crew firing on a group of people and killing several of them, including two Reuters journalists, and then laughing at some of the casualties, all of whom were civilians. An anonymous U.S. military official confirmed the authenticity of the footage, which provoked global discussion on the legality and morality of the attacks.

A no-drive zone is a form of interdiction and specifically a militarily enforced declaration of an intent to deny vehicular movement over a strategic or tactically valued line of communication by the threat of vehicle destruction. A capability first used in the Balkans and a term recently coined during the 2011 Libyan civil war as a potential course of action to prevent Muammar Gaddafi's government forces from approaching rebel strongholds near Benghazi, no-drive zones present unique challenges to military planners and warfighters. Unlike no-fly zone enforcement where electronic and visual means of identification of relatively few air entities allow warfighters to sort out potential targets, no-drive zones may include a variety of vehicle types with no electronic signatures to identify themselves and where enemy, friendly, and unaffiliated traffic are co-mingled. Enforcement from the air is further complicated by the necessary coordination with ground controller units providing persistent surveillance and possible identification when airborne intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets are unavailable or denied necessary airspace access.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counter-IED efforts</span>

Counter-IED efforts are done primarily by military and law enforcement with the assistance of the diplomatic and financial communities. It involves a comprehensive approach of countering the threat networks that employ improvised explosive devices (IEDs), defeating the devices themselves, and training others. Counter-IED, or C-IED, is usually part of a broader counter-terrorism, counter-insurgency, or law enforcement effort. Because IEDs are a subset of a number of forms of asymmetric warfare used by insurgents and terrorists, C-IED activities are principally against adversaries and not only against IEDs. C-IED treats the IED as a systemic problem and aims to defeat the IED threat networks themselves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raytheon Coyote</span> Type of aircraft

The Raytheon Coyote is a small, expendable, unmanned aircraft system built by the Raytheon Company, with the capability of operating in autonomous swarms. It is launched from a sonobuoy canister with the wings deploying in early flight phase.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyber kill chain</span>

The cyber kill chain is the process by which perpetrators carry out cyberattacks. Lockheed Martin adapted the concept of the kill chain from a military setting to information security, using it as a method for modeling intrusions on a computer network. The cyber kill chain model has seen some adoption in the information security community. However, acceptance is not universal, with critics pointing to what they believe are fundamental flaws in the model.

References

  1. "Kill Chain Approach". Chief of Naval Operations. April 23, 2013. Archived from the original on June 13, 2013.
  2. Jonathan Greenert; Mark Welsh (May 17, 2013). "Breaking the Kill Chain". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on December 9, 2022. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
  3. "Lockheed-Martin Corporation-Hutchins, Cloppert, and Amin-Intelligence-Driven Computer Network Defense Informed by Analysis of Adversary Campaigns and Intrusion Kill Chains-2011" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-07-27. Retrieved 2021-08-26.
  4. John A. Tirpak (July 1, 2000). "Find, Fix, Track, Target, Engage, Assess". Air Force Magazine.
  5. Benitez, Mike (May 17, 2017). "It's About Time: The Pressing Need to Evolve the Kill Chain". War on the Rocks. Archived from the original on June 8, 2020. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  6. "The OODA Loop: How Fighter Pilots Make Fast and Accurate Decisions". fs.blog. March 15, 2021. Archived from the original on September 27, 2023. Retrieved September 10, 2023.
  7. Sanger, David E. (July 6, 2017). "Tiny Satellites From Silicon Valley May Help Track North Korea Missiles". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 7, 2017. Retrieved July 7, 2017.
  8. "06/30/17 - Joint Statement between the United States and the Republic of Korea | U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Korea". U.S. Embassy & Consulate in Korea. 2017-06-30. Retrieved 2017-07-07.[ permanent dead link ]