Kill Chain

The kill chain is a well understood principle of warfare encompassing three steps:

1. gaining understanding of what is happening
2. making a decision about what to do
3. taking actions that creates an effect to achieve an objective

While the word “kill” is in the phrase, it does not dictate a lethal action and may take the form of non-violent actions. For example, if the objective is to disrupt enemy logistics you may take a violent action (blowing up a shipping port) or a non-violent action (unleashing a computer virus to disable infrastructure)¹.

1. Brose, C. The Kill Chain: Defending America in the Future of High-Tech Warfare. (Hachette Books, New York, 2020).