"Unable" reply from 3 fully loaded wingmen when ordered to attack in range aircraft.

[scotth6]

I'm currently playing through the F-16 included missions.  I have played "Coiled Viper" a few times.  If I order the wingmen to attack targets individually when first approaching the intercept point, they do seem to engage and attack the aircraft.  A couple of times though, I have specifically gone after the escort Migs, and that has left me short of ammo to take out the cargo aircraft, the main targets of the mission.  After chewing through all my missiles and gun ammo, I lock on to the cargo aircraft individually and order individual wingmen to attack the target, and they all reply "Unable".  They are nearby, they all have full ammo except for one fired AIM-20, they have not reported bingo.  What are the conditions that lead to wingmen becoming this useless?

[Exorcet]

It's not only ammo but fuel that you need to worry about. I haven't played this mission, but if the AI uses afterburner a lot of fuel dips below a certain amount they will refuse to attack anything.

Something that might help, with R Alt + J you can jump into any friendly flyable aircraft. If you need to, you can fly your wingmen's planes for them.