This paper investigates the formation control problem of unmanned surface vessel (USV) platoons by proposing a leader-follower framework that explicitly accounts for the initial and terminal heading angles of follower ships. The study analyzes the impact of follower ships’ maneuvering characteristics on trajectory planning and occupation time during formation reconfiguration. A novel “circular arc + straight line + circular arc” trajectory strategy is introduced, which is proposed as an optimal control problem. The iterative solution incorporates inherent maneuvering dynamics of follower ships during array position transitions. Simulation results demonstrate that trajectories generated by the proposed method, which enforce bow/stern constraints, exhibit longer occupation times compared to traditional fixed-speed approaches. As the turning radius increases, the vessel requires a longer path to achieve the constant-speed positioning, consequently leading to increased time consumption. This highlights the necessity of allocating sufficient time for array position occupation. The methodology effectively models relative positioning between leader and follower ships, yielding physically feasible trajectories that align with actual vessel maneuvering phases (including turning motions). This approach provides a novel engineering-oriented paradigm for USV formation control.