AI Wingmen useless?

[LeCuvier]

I find that KA-50 AI wingmen contribute very little to mission success, no matter what skill level I set.
1. I cannot tell them which target to engage (the A-10C communication is much better). So while I engage a group of targets and tell the wingman to engage ground targets, he may fly off to another group of targets. I tried the command "Engage..." "my target" but that didn't seem to achieve anything. Is it necessary to set up a data link?
2. The AI wingman, armed with 12 Vikhr missiles does not attack from a safe distance. Instead, it gets so close that David could kill it with his slingshot. Even if there is a lethal anti-aircraft weapon like a Vulcan in the group. And inevitably, it gets killed very quickly by anything that can shoot. Even in a very target-rich mission my AI wingmen rarely manage to fire even half of their missiles while I have to RTB for a re-arm.

Correction: I can actually designate a ground target and the wingman will engage that target. However, I cannot tell him to attack with an ATGM (Vikhr) which is the only way to engage a flak or SAM. So sometimes he will fire a Vikhr from a safe distance, but quite often he will try to attack a ZSU with his gun and get killed, although he has confirmed "Engaging air defense" so he knows it's a dangerous target. And in all these cases he had multiple Vikhr's available.

Edited November 3, 2022 by LeCuvier
correction

[Taz1004]

Even tho this is plainly obvious issue that existed for years, they're just gonna ask you to provide track.

[Exorcet]

AI is an area where DCS need improvement, and the devs are working on it.

In the meantime, probably the best use of wingmen are as extra "lives" or ammo. You can switch to another aircraft using R Alt + J by default. Using this command you can take over your wingman's helicopter if you get shot down or run out of ammo. I suggest waiting until you no longer want to return to your original helicopter because once you leave, an AI will take over and it just flies back to base.