[0rph3u5]

Does the GTVA have enought recruits who are willing and able to crew a carrier? (EDIT: the question includes flight personel)

[QuakeIV]

I personally think that a dedicated carrier as we understand it today is way too vulnerable in freespace, because enemy warships can more or less magically appear a mere few kilometers away from said carrier and start tearing it to pieces.  Today, a carrier group could conceivably maintain a multi-hundred-mile exclusion zone around the carrier and intercept stuff that tried to close the distance, so a fairly individually vulnerable carrier is quite workable by comparison (although this is starting to be somewhat invalidated by ASBMs seemingly).

I think something like the Orion is close to the minimum self-defense capability required to let the ship actually employ its airwing without constantly having to call it back as soon as something larger than a cruiser shows up.  I think this winds up befalling a lot of Hecate's, who either have to recall their wing fairly often, or are cut off from their wing and wind up being badly mauled while their fighters are off doing other things.

[manwiththemachinegun]

For all practical purposes, that's what a Hecate-class destroyer is for. It's technically a "battlestar" in that it can engage enemy capital ships if absolutely required, but it's purpose is to deliver strike craft to a battlefield en masse.

Do I want new ships along that idea though? Heck yes. I agree with Blue Planet given the threat of the Shivans, making any Colossus type Juggernaut as the lynch-pin of fleet defense is suicidal.