The mission description for TGP Test Pilot III states that you will be taking on a group of bots with support from friendly pilots. However when you warp in no friends are present and no friends arrive.

This made the first part hard, but not impossible. However the second part grinds me up in mere seconds.

In my case the group shows up but does not attack the bots unless the individual npc ship is hit, then that ship will attack the bots.

None of the NPC ships came to help in the second part.

The second part is player-only by design. You have to kill all the bots yourself, as even one kill by any other player/NPC will leave you with an insufficient number of bots to meet your kill total.