When does a military consider a system to be inducted/operational

General Questions
#1

Several weapons (and other systems) see use before formal induction, either in testing or actual combat as a trial. Sometimes it can be hard to identify when it actually was in service so to speak. The F-22 spent years in testing even in squadrons. Some types of AFV and UAV’s saw action in the current wars before being formally deployed.

When does the point come that a system is part considered to have been inducted. My own guess is that when, storage, maintenance, support and training facilities for that system have been set up.

#2

The formal definition for initial operational capability in the US armed forces is: In general, attained when some units and/or organizations in the force structure scheduled to receive a system 1) have received it and 2) have the ability to employ and maintain it. The specifics for any particular system IOC are defined in that system’s Capability Development Document (CDD) and Capability Production Document (CPD).

It isn’t a particularly important event. It is more of a announcement than a substantive evaluation of a weapons system. For example, the MQ-1 Predator was first deployed in 1994 to the Balkans, but IOC was not declared by the Air Force until 2005.

#3

I heard about these rebels that would disagree…