What does time-to-engage measure in training metrics?

• A. The elapsed time from initial detection to engagement initiation.
• B. The total mission duration.
• C. The time between communications between sensors.
• D. The time a target remains classified.

Answer: (C)

Time-to-engage in training metrics focuses on how quickly the system moves from sensing to the point where an engagement is initiated, emphasizing the coordination steps that precede firing. When multiple sensors must share data and align their targeting information, the critical delay is the time it takes for those communications to happen and for the sensors to synchronize. That is why the measure describing the time between communications between sensors best captures this latency: it directly tracks how long sensor data flows and coordinating signals take before an engagement command is issued. The other interpretations describe broader or unrelated time spans—such as the overall detection-to-engagement window, the total mission duration, or how long a target stays classified—which do not isolate the coordination latency between sensors.