Aircraft refusing to group

[Shemar]

I am totally new to this game so I don't know if I am doing something wrong or if that is how things are suposed to work (known bug?)

I want to manually control a strike mission. I don't want to create a mission, I want to launch my aircraft, plot their course, manage their radar emissions and order them to fire. I already know how to do all this and it mostly works. However I am having terrible issues with getting the aircraft to group.

When I launch them, they form a group autmatically. I give them their orders and all is well. But at some point suddenly they are not a group any more and no amount of selecting them and hitting the 'G' key will force them into a group again.

So, what is causing them to break the group? Is it something I am clicking by mistake? As I am just learning the hotkeys that is possible but how am I doing it? Or is it a known bug?

And why can't I group them again? I know I have succesfully groupd aircraft in flight before (although I had a hell of a time doing it) but it seems that most of the time is not working.

[BurntFingers]

I've never even TRIED to group a set of aircraft.
 
Aircraft groups must all be the same type of aircraft. Can't mix different types.
 
What I generally do is launch aircraft in pairs or fours, and leave them in a group. Yes, I manually control (the mission editor is undergoing work for the next patch).
 
Mind you, if they are on Bingo fuel (must fly back to base) then they will automatically ungroup into singles to fly back. That could be where the confusion lies.

[Shemar]

Thanks for the reply. Based on what I was told on another forum, I probably hit F6 twice with the group selected, that is why my group just broke up. I was also told I had to get them off their 'Return to Base' mission by using the U key before trying to re-group them.
 
I have succesfully grouped aircarft (of the same type and loadout) in the air before, if they are idly loitering close to each other. But yeah, barring rookie mistakes like hitting the F6 key twice one would usually never have to group aircraft in mid-flight.

[Bucks]

You were once able to group aircraft in Harpoon 2. Although it was just grouping them, no patrol station assignment was possible. At present it's not, but may enter the game at some point in the future.

Cheers

Darren