In this paper, we study and analyze the overall acquisition performance of the combined acquisition-tracking synchronization loop for direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DS-SS) signals in the presence of Doppler shift. We consider both the change of effective search rate and the impact on the detection probability due to Doppler for the acquisition loop. We also determine the acquisition behavior of the digital delay lock loop (DDLL) in the presence of code Doppler. As a result, the influence of the DDLL's acquiring capability on the complete acquisition process is investigated and some numerical results are presented to demonstrate the acquisition performances of this combined loop which are quite different from the previous reports.