The construction of the indicator system is an important foundation for evaluating the effectiveness of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) formation. In view of the current problem of numerous and redundant indicators in the UAV formation combat effectiveness evaluation indicator system, this paper studies an indicator system optimization method based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). Based on the requirements of UAV formation cooperative combat missions and the observation-orientation-decision-action (OODA) chain, this paper comprehensively considers all factors that affect the combat effectiveness of UAV formation, and establishes a relatively comprehensive effectiveness evaluation indicator system. Then, according to the scale method, the importance of each level of indicators is compared to get a judgment matrix for the indicator system. Next, the weight of each indicator is calculated using the AHP, and finally the optimized indicator system is obtained by deleting indicators with lower weights. The analysis shows that the indicator system optimization method can simplify the indicator system without affecting the comprehensiveness of the indicators, which is conducive to highlighting key indicators and can guide the formulation of UAV formation combat tactics and strategies to a certain extent.