1. A method comprising the steps of: until the end of a known operational scenario time window, iteratively repeating the steps of selecting a ping optimization method based upon a mission mode of operation, remaining scenario time in the operational scenario time window, total remaining ping energy, and an acoustic performance metric, wherein the mission mode of operation is one of target search, track-holding, and search and hold, generating a set of acoustic pings using an acoustic ping source network comprising more than one acoustic ping sources selected according to the ping optimization method, processing detections from the generated set of acoustic pings, and updating performance metric predictions associated with optimization decision variables for the operational scenario time window.