In order to meet the actual needs of the army combat, five kinds of the most widely used and the most mature air defense combat effectiveness evaluation methods of naval formation are analyzed. The application and research status of the five methods are described, and it is proposed that the next main development direction is to study the combat effectiveness of the system combined with combat simulation experiments, to introduce intelligent algorithms and to integrate multiple methods and multiple data. The results show that the application of various air defense operational effectiveness evaluation methods can not fully meet the actual needs of the army combat, and the analysis can provide some reference for subsequent researchers.