Does it have specific tactical advantages or is it just cool?
Edit to add: what about specific types of formations, like a Flying V vs a Diamond vs whatever else they can do?
In: 797
The tactical advantage is that it allows you to coordinate your maneuvers better. If you always know where everyone is in relation to yourself, or in relation to the person flying at the front of the formation, you can coordinate everyone’s movements much easier than if you were just flying randomly, but near each other. It’s also much safer. They have to make a lot of split second decisions regarding the movement of their planes that could mean life or death for them or for their fellow pilots. This is an oversimplification, but imagine if you needed to bank left in 0.5 seconds, or you would die. You want to know that you can do that safely without colliding with someone who is flying with you and you’ll know that if you know exactly where everyone else is flying in relation to you.
It’s easier for coordination(don’t have to go search where everyone is in a already high stress environment), makes it easier to assist your buddies(lasing a bomb for your buddy for example), and everyone in a formation is usually going to the same target, at the same time, so any defences will have a harder time targeting an individual plane. Furthermore in the age of dog fighting (ww2 + a few early jets), flying together in a formation meant the wingman could help the lead if he was attacked by an enemy(lead gets chased, wingman chases). The most common of these was the finger four formation. Flying in a 2 ship formation also allows for maneuvers like the thatch weave
In a fight you want to maintain superiority. If you are three airplanes fighting against two enemies you are likely going to win. But if your three airplanes are spread out over a larger area then the two enemies might attack one and one airplane winning all three fights. So you want to stick together so that you can fight together and defend each other. The easiest way to do this is to fly tight enough that you always see each other and can follow each others exact move. If you get too far away from each other it is easy to lose track of each other, miss a turn and get separated.
In addition to this it helps when scouting for enemies. You can have one looking forward, one to the left and one to the right. When you focus on just one section of the sky you are more likely to spot anything. This applies both when looking with your eyes and when focusing your radar on that section.
And when you have a lot of airplanes flying it can become too much for a controller and other pilots to keep track. So instead of keeping track of each individual airplane you keep track of each formation. It is easier to keep track of 10 formations then 30-50 single airplanes. You can even do parallel take-off and landings to increase the capacity of the airfield as the airplanes can fly in formation through these operations as well.
But the tight formations you might see in events and on film is mostly just for show. They do this for training, and there are certain situations when you want to get this close during a combat mission. But most of the time they fly a bit further from each other so they have some room to move around in case of mistakes or turbulence. You are typically not touching wingtips.
It also makes fuel economy more predictable and consistent across the entire squadron. In WWII there were instances where newbie bomber pilots who hadn’t yet mastered formation flying used up all their fuel by constantly accelerating and decelerating in order to keep up with the larger group.
Consider how much more exhausted you would be if you had to sprint to catch up with the group, pause to catch for breath, and then sprint forward again instead of just running at everybody else’s pace.
And when you run out of fuel in the middle of a mission, that can literally be a death sentence. Those pilots often had to ditch into water or over enemy territory because they couldn’t make it back home.
Each formation has a different function.
Fingertip (close formation): used when needing to stay visual with your flight lead when going through weather, battle damage checks, or congested traffic patterns. Requires significant cross check from #2 to not hit flight lead.
Fighting Wing/Wedge: A balance between staying visual while allowing #2 freedom to maneuver in an extended cone off #1. Keeps the formation together for mutual support and is flexible.
Tactical: Our standard combat formation. Jets are on a common line and miles apart. Maximizes sensor sanitization and lethality between members of the formation.
Source: am fighter pilot
Everyone is wrong. Fighter jets flying close together is so that they appear as one, or at least as a smaller number to any radar that could pick them up. It would be detrimental in a fight to be so close together. You notice helicopters tend to fly much looser formations, this is because helicopters have such a massive radar cross section and fly so close to the enemy that it wouldn’t make a difference, the radar would still be able to differentiate.
It has several purposes: it keeps planes in a known location relative to others, it enhances pilot skill, it allows wingmen to cover their follows and see damage and it helps confuse enemy radar by potentially appearing as a single target. It also facilitates hand signals for communication.
(Former fighter pilot here) Fighter aircraft almost ALWAYS operate in numbers. Think of it like a football team…having specific roles played by individuals in any given scenario. However, why CLOSE formation? I mean, it looks like they are just showing off right? Answer:
Close formation also allows aircraft to penetrate weather (clouds) together and not lose sight of one another. Yes, things have changed over the years with the advent of radar and such. However, there are times (like when flying on the tanker)…where you just need to, “tuck it in,” and fly into clouds together. What it looks like within is like flying close formation, but with no horizon in a very dense fog.
The alternative is having members of the formation going, “lost wingman,” where getting back together can become a giant cluster you-know-what.
This is a cool ELI5 post as I live near a Navy Base and see these jets flying in formation ALL the time.
Nobody mentioned yet, and I am suprised seeing as there are real fighter pilots here:
In adition to tactical advantages, there is a very important physics one: optimising air resistance.
You probably saw geese or other birds fly in formations before. They are not random. They are designed by nature to optimise energy consumption. The same goes for planes.
Video link from Boeing here:
Latest Answers