# Demo — Kill Chain Explorer
The air-threat kill chain is the backbone of the whole course: Detect → Track → Identify → Engage → Kill. Survivability means breaking one of those links, and every EW technique is a tool aimed at a specific link. This demo lets you walk the chain, see which survivability disciplines attack each link, and then test yourself on the ES / EP / EA classification.
## The framework
Each link depends on the one before it. Break any single link and the engagement fails:
$$
\text{Detect} \to \text{Track} \to \text{Identify} \to \text{Engage} \to \text{Kill}
$$
Activity in the spectrum is organized into **Electronic Support (ES)** — sensing and characterizing emissions; **Electronic Protection (EP)** — defending your own use of the spectrum; and **Electronic Attack (EA)** — degrading, denying, or deceiving the enemy's use of it.
## Interactive demo
Open in full screen
## Walkthrough
1. **Click the Detect box.** Read which disciplines break this link — low-observable shaping, standoff jamming, emission control. Notice that Detect is where stealth has the most leverage (the fourth-power law from the reading).
2. **Step through Track, Identify, Engage, Kill.** Each side panel lists the disciplines and a few example tactics. Watch how the toolkit shifts from signature reduction (early links) to deception and hard-kill defenses (late links).
3. **Note the Kill box is red.** It is the outcome to prevent — every technique upstream exists to keep the chain from reaching it.
4. **Play the classification mini-game.** A tactic appears ("RWR alerts crew to SAM lock"). Choose ES, EP, or EA. The score tracks correct vs. attempted across ~10 scenarios.
5. **Get one wrong on purpose.** Read the explanation. The classification is about the *function* (listen / defend / attack), not the hardware.
## Key observations
- **The chain is sequential.** You do not have to defeat the whole IADS — break the cheapest link at the place and time that matters.
- **One system, multiple roles.** An RWR (ES) that cues a jammer (EA) is the canonical pairing; classification describes function, not the box.
- **Detect is special.** Because detection gates everything downstream and obeys the fourth-power law, it rewards investment more than any other link.
## Source
MATLAB · code/L1_FourthPowerLaw.m↓
The in-class type-along script plots the fourth-power law $R_\text{max} = K\,\sigma^{1/4}$ and confirms that a 12 dB RCS reduction halves the detection range.