SAM and Track Targets

[777coletrain]

In one of Wagz recent mini updates he states that they are working the time to resolve search targets to track targets (I think?). I'm wondering though if we should be able to lock search targets in STT, SAM, and DTT since they don't require a track. I'm not entirely sure but just wanted to know.

[Dragon1-1]

Only in STT do you actually lock a target. In the others you just designate it for tracking. That means both DTT and RWS-SAM will be affected.

[777coletrain]

I guess I should have said designate but doesn't DTT and SAM effectively STT the target for a few sweeps though? I thought that was the main difference between RWS and TWS 

[Frederf]

The word "lock" is a little nebulous but in general yes, lock (or hard lock to avoid confusion) is STT and other methods are "bugged" or "soft locked" in the slang. As said above RWS's SAM modes with 1 or 2 targets get a little extra antenna attention every cycle whereas in TWS it's a simple scan.

It's important to know that the radar is always attempting to correlate contact hits into track files even in modes that don't display them. When you command TOI on a displayed contact symbol the radar may already have an associated track file ready to go or if not it will go through a quick process to find that contact and generate enough data to have a track quickly. That second one could theoretically have difficulty succeeding.