Block 4 — Aircraft Survivability and Mission Planning

Block 4 — Aircraft Survivability and Mission Planning#

Block 04Lessons 31–41

Integrating low-observable design, electronic warfare, and tactics into a survivable mission. Threat-laydown analysis, route planning against a modern IADS, and the survivability tradeoffs that keep the B-21 in the fight.

Blocks 1–3 each gave you a lever on one link of the kill chain. Block 4 puts them on one map. Every teaching lesson adds one layer of the analysis your Final Project needs — the survival metric, the threat map, the adversary’s track on you, the route, the pop-up threat, the support package, and the limits of it all — and the project is issued on day one so you can build it as you go.

What you’ll learn#

  1. Decompose the kill chain into a product of conditional links, split susceptibility \(P_H\) from vulnerability \(P_{K|H}\), multiply independent encounters into \(P_S\), and turn it into additive risk \(-\ln P_S\).

  2. Draw a threat’s aspect-dependent detection contour, bound it with the radar horizon, and tell the MEZ from the LEZ.

  3. Build the Fisher information \(J = H^\top R^{-1} H\) from bearing rows, read the Cramér–Rao ellipse, and name L14’s PDOP: \(\text{DRMS} = \text{PDOP}\cdot\bar R\cdot\sigma_\theta\).

  4. Pose routing as a shortest path, run Dijkstra, design the cost, trace the risk-versus-length Pareto front under a fuel limit, and explain why aspect makes the graph directed.

  5. Fuse your own bearings with an extended Kalman filter, and know when range is observable — and what the maneuver that buys it costs.

  6. Size stand-off jamming through the radar’s mainlobe versus a sidelobe, place the jammer and the strike route together, and weigh SEAD against it.

  7. Read the trends — cognitive EW, ML emitter identification, NAVWAR, and space EW — and say what each would change in your plan.

  8. Write it up as an IEEE journal article that cites the course lesson by lesson, and review two classmates’ papers against the rubric.

In this block#

Lesson 31

Survivability and the PK Chain

Susceptibility and vulnerability, the kill chain as a product of conditional links, PS across encounters, and additive risk −ln PS. The Final Project is issued. Reading · Flashcards · Slides.

 Lesson 32

Threat Geometry

Aspect-dependent detection contours, the radar horizon and which bound binds, the MEZ and the LEZ, and the gaps in a layered laydown. Reading · Flashcards · Demo · Slides.

 Lesson 33

Information Geometry

Fisher information from bearing rows, the Cramér–Rao bound, L14's PDOP named (DRMS = PDOP·R̄·σθ), and the seams where a route hides or a fix fails. Reading · Flashcards · Demo · Slides.

 Lesson 34

Optimal Path Planning

Routes as shortest paths: Dijkstra on a threat grid, exposure as r = −ln(1−p) = Σλℓ, the weight sweep to a Pareto front under a fuel limit, and why aspect makes the graph directed. Reading · Flashcards · Demo · Slides.

 Lesson 35

Fusion Under Threat

One aircraft, one RWR, a pop-up SAM: fuse your own bearings with a Kalman filter, find out when range is observable, and price the dogleg that buys it. Reading · Flashcards · Demo · Slides.

 Lesson 36

SEAD and Standoff Jamming

Suppression versus destruction and the SEAD window, beam/notch, and stand-off J/S ∝ Rt⁴/Rj² through the mainlobe or a sidelobe — a jammer protects a corridor, not a sky. Reading · Flashcards · Demo · Slides.

 Lesson 37

Modern Trends in EW

Cognitive EW's sense–learn–adapt loop, a classifier's confusion matrix read as Pd/Pfa, the GPS denial circle and INS drift, and uplink versus downlink jamming — the trends behind your Limitations section. Reading · Flashcards · Slides.

 Lesson 38

Final Project Work Day

The IEEE template on Overleaf, the MATLAB toolkit and sample AI prompts, citing the course lesson by lesson, and the rubric — then write. Complete draft due at the start of L39.

 Lesson 39

Peer Review

Draft due at the start of class. Calibrate on a sample paragraph, then review a classmate's paper against the rubric. Review #2 due before L40.

 Lesson 40

Revision Work Day

Triage your two reviews, revise, and write the response-to-reviewers table. Paper, table, code and transcripts due at the start of L41.

 Lesson 41

Course Wrap-Up

Final Project and HW4 due at the start of class, Quiz 4 in class, a review game across all four blocks, and the course AAR.

 Final Project

B-21 Penetrating-Strike Route Planning

Individual IEEE-style article in lieu of a final exam: a minimum-risk ingress and egress against a layered threat, with a stand-off jammer and one SEAD nomination. Handout, data, starter and template posted.

 Homework

Homework 4 · Survivability and Mission Planning

Individual walkthrough of the Block 4 toolkit, one question per lesson topic. Ten questions, due at the start of L41.
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