<p>Communication constraint is the main factor that affects networked autonomous underwater vehicles’ (NAUVs) control performance. This article investigates the distributed event-driven formation control for NAUVs undergoing external disturbances and uncertain hydrodynamics. As distributed systems, the achievement of the target geometrical configuration hinges heavily on neighboring communication. However, the risk of traffic jamming will arise when an underwater acoustic communication network is occupied by multiple information packets broadcasted from different vehicles. Worse still, potential packet losses and time delays caused by traffic jamming may destroy the system stability. Regarding this, by introducing a distributed observer for each vehicle, the leader-follower distributed formation control is categorized into a localization layer and a tracking layer. Furthermore, a trade-off between communication constraint and control performance is achieved under this framework. Specifically, a novel interleaved periodic dynamic event-triggered communication mechanism is integrated into the upper distributed observer, endowing NAUVs with anti-competing interaction capability. By resorting to an anti-winding finite-time prescribed performance algorithm in the lower tracking layer, the tracking accuracy is guaranteed even in circumstances of large-angle formation motions. The prominent feature of the proposed control scheme lies in ensuring the formation flexibility and tracking accuracy under unreliable communication network. Simulation results are constructed to illustrate the effectiveness of this work.</p>