Speed, range, and the survivability onion

What alternatives to stealth can make strike aircraft survivable?

Low-level flight, speed, stand-off range, and rapid attack can each remove a layer of the enemy's engagement process, depending on the mission.

The panel frames survivability as a series of layers: avoid being present, detected, identified, engaged, hit, or fatally damaged. The Blackburn Buccaneer illustrates an older combination of very-low-level flight and speed intended to penetrate before defenders could react. Hypersonic weapons and long-range attack offer other ways to reduce exposure, though each depends on the mission and the defense being faced. The answer also separates crew survival from the strategic requirement to destroy an important target.