Combat issues

[Narrew]

I am fighting an enemy that has alot of seeker/fighters so I made some Escorts with just point defense to help my existing fleet. I have default orders to attack nearest seekers/fighters/sattlites but in the fleet they are in have optimal firing range. Well the Escorts end up running out to the edges *sigh* that dont help me at all. Also my fleet wont stay in formation is there anything I can do?