When you use them in conjunction with the other keyboard commands they 'work' a treat.
For example..........to tell your wingman to attack, pop off a flare, press A, and check out your wingy........he'll signal back to you that he's going to have a go at the enemy by firing off a flare also.
That's because CFS3 was coded so that any fighter wingmen drop any bombs before they attack other aircraft, the flares are loaded up as bombs in the xdp, so before they attack they let one go..........for the purpose of immersion in OFF it's a great function.