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Originally Posted by kapuhy

No, I was just curious how it worked in history - on one there's the notion that task forces containing precious capital ships were sailing at high speed and zigazgging to minimize chances of being torpedoed, and on the other what would be needed to regularly launch and recover scout planes - stopping entire task force including the expensive battleship so it can fish its scout plane out of the water. Possibly, several times a day.

If recovering those planes was so complicated that the whole process might have exposed a task force to more risks than it was worth, why did they carry them? A Walrus had a gross weight of more than 3 metric tons. Add to that catapult's weight. Wouldn't they spare that weight for extra stores/ammunition? I understand that, at some point, with the advance in radar technology and more fleet carriers available, scout planes enbarked on battleships and cruisers were made redundant, but I can't imagine them being carried around for no reason

Originally Posted by kapuhy

One more thing to consider: is SH5 "squadron" simply a group of aircraft flying together? If so, the realistic numbers would not be whatever the actual squadron had, but the usual number of planes in a group (which for many recon/patrol planes would be one).

Originally Posted by propbeanie

Don't forget also that a squadron of six planes only expected 4 to be available at any given time, due to maintenance, waiting on parts, lack of pilot, etc. In the SH games, six planes means that you have six planes, though they might be "launched" individually or by twos...

Good points. Let's put together some information.

In reality

According to Wikipedia

Originally Posted by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadron_(aviation)

A squadron in air force, army aviation, or naval aviation is a unit comprising a number of military aircraft and their aircrews, usually of the same type, typically with 12 to 24 aircraft, sometimes divided into three or four flights, depending on aircraft type and air force. Land based squadrons equipped with heavier type aircraft such as long-range bombers, cargo aircraft, or air refueling tankers have around 12 aircraft as a typical authorization, while most land-based fighter equipped units have an authorized number of 18 to 24 aircraft.

In naval aviation, sea-based and land-based squadrons will typically have smaller numbers of aircraft, ranging from as low as four for early warning to as high as 12 for fighter/attack.

Originally Posted by https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Bomber_Command_aircrew_of_World_War_II#Aircrew _leadership

Until mid-summer of 1943 most bomber squadrons comprised three flights, "A", "B" and "C", each of 7–10 aircraft. [...]. During the expansion of RAF Bomber Command from the summer of 1943 many squadrons consisted of two flights, each having 8– 12 aircraft

The website of No. 8 Squadron (which belonged to the Aden Command and performed ASW patrols during WWII) contains some interesting information too:

Originally Posted by https://www.viiisquadron.co.uk/history/1939-1945/maritime-patrols

In August 1941 the first Blenheim Mk IVs were received and by November the Squadron possessed over 20 of the improved aircraft. By the summer of 1942, the Vincents were finally withdrawn and replaced by the Blenheim Mk V. In September 1942, the Squadron strength was 31 Blenheim Mk Vs and 10 Blenheim Mk IVs.

Summing up, the typical figure for most Air Forces can be considered 12, 18 or 24 aircraft per squadron. My guess is that it is not an accident if the numbers above are all multiples of 2, 3, or 4, as this was the number of flights composing a squadron. That said, a minimum of 4 aircraft and a maximum in excess of 40 aircraft are also registered. Talking about the high extreme, I have a couple of remarks:

- No.8 Squadron had several detachments in Oman, Yemen and Somalia; this reduces the number of aircraft per station. I doubt its 41 Blenheims to have flown all at the same time just from one airbase.

- What should be considered besides number of aircraft, is number of aircrews per squadron. Especially by mid-late war, some RAF squadrons might have had more aircraft than they could actually operate, due to lack of crews. Unfortunately, informationion available on this point is pretty scarce.


In game

According to my experience (please tell me if I got something wrong), no matter how high is the number of aircraft assigned to nearby bases, their planes will always patrol singularly or in couples. If an aircraft or any another unit spots an enemy, it will call for reinforcements and more aircraft will visit the detection area. I have not direct experience of that, but according to propbeabie, in SHIV a maximum of 7 aircraft will look for our submarine if we were previously detected, which, imo, is pretty realistic. Even in this case (planes spawning purposely for attacking an enemy), having an higher number of aircraft assigned to a base, won't imply them spawning all at once.

Summing up: to the best of my (limited) understanding, a large number of planes in air groups won't have much effect on the size of "flights" (i.e. groups of aircraft flying together) spawned by that group, but it will increase the chance of aircraft spawning - singularly or in groups of two - for maritime patrol purposes. If the statement above proves true, relatively high numbers of aircraft per group should be reserved for long-ranged patrol bombers, because they need to cover a much bigger patrol area than shorter-range aircraft, especially in the suaezed SH5 world, where distances are bigger than in real world.

I wish to know your thoughts on these points guys