WC 1 is very easy tbh. I won the game after some hours and I only got destroyed when flying into a baseship/asteroid/etc....

While playing the Secret Missions 1 & 2 which are far harder and sometimes even frustrating, I am wondering why you always got a wingmen. Most of the time I kill like 10-15 enemies, my partner kills 1 at maximum, also they are called very good pilots.
Worse than that, they often spam me on radio because they got hit. I try to send them back but they never listen :/

So, is the wingmen necessary or just a pain, what do you think? :)
Or did your wingmen perform better?

Maniac never listens... but apart from that most obey "return to base" order when there are no enemies around (but not during fight).

The wingmen are good for drawing enemy fire. Enemies are easier to hit when they tail your wingman. That is, if the wingman is able to survive for a bit. If he is already damaged it's better to send him home.

Well, at the very least they are there for atmosphere & plot. But yeah, sometimes they can seem pretty useless (though some are better than others). And like CaveSoundMaster said, they will draw fire, which is helpful.

Actually they managed to score quite a few hits (for a WC1 wingmen - more then 1, up to 4 in one mission) in my recent playthrough (not SM though). When i damaged some enemy fighters they were able to finish them off.

Another tactic i recently found wingmen are useful for is sending them against big stuff (transports and such) while you keep the enemy escort busy. They do manage to take it out before the jump.

I got the impression that wingmen are totally unable to kill fighter with their canons. So indeed, if you damage some fighters they sometimes finish it with a rocket.

New Topic: Wing Commander 2 Wingmen :P

In SO1 there are some mission when you got 3-4 wingmen. Flying a epee or a sabre, they often kill me faster than the enemy could do. They simply dont care that I am between thte enemy and them.... very annoying!

You got a point, i remember that wingmen on WC1 were pretty clumsy in general...

It is also very strange in wing commander 3. In the first 80% of the missions the wingmen do a lot of skill and are nearly invincable. After a specific point in the story they die like flies, especially vs capital ships.
Worst thing is they do not eject and most of the time you realize that they are dead, when you autopilot to the next waypoint :P

Yeah...that is the point when you shouldn't choose people like Maniac, who will flat-out refuse to return to base if you tell them to.