A Federation Military

[Stark]

Although I have never seen any canon evidence to suggest Nebula is slower than Galaxy, I agree with Alyeska that warp geometry is important; hanging a pair of defiants off the ship is going to seriously screw that up. Build SW-style warp add-ons

Depending on where/how you hang them. Something like an enlarged Cheyenne-class might work as a "mothership". You dock the smaller craft directly behind the saucer, inside the box formed by the four nacelles. Warp bubble completely encloses everything, and most of the small craft are shielded to the front by the main hull of the carrier.

I think they'd be better off building Aethersprite-style dedicated warp systems to attach to defiants; discard them for battle, come back later. You only really need the extra speed for deployment, and if you can discard the vulnerable external nacelles you get the best of both.

[Prozac the Robert]

I think they'd be better off building Aethersprite-style dedicated warp systems to attach to defiants; discard them for battle, come back later. You only really need the extra speed for deployment, and if you can discard the vulnerable external nacelles you get the best of both.

Tisn't completely relevant to ST, but David Weber sums up the disadvantages of doing something like that quite well here.

[consequences]

I think they'd be better off building Aethersprite-style dedicated warp systems to attach to defiants; discard them for battle, come back later. You only really need the extra speed for deployment, and if you can discard the vulnerable external nacelles you get the best of both.

Tisn't completely relevant to ST, but David Weber sums up the disadvantages of doing something like that quite well here.

A ST based FTL shell system would have more flexibility than an Honorverse one, and be capable of departing the system and waiting for and ftl signal to return to a prearranged rendezvous point.

Weber is ignoring the possibilities for an unscrupulous star nation willing to make suicide attacks. You send your LAC carriers in, along with a group of hyper-sleeve equipped independent LAC. You have the carriers hang around at the edge of the star system with the sleeves, and if all goes well, the LAC return, and everyone goes home happy. If the LAC force gets horribly mangled, the carriers retrieve the sleeves and exit stage right.

[Uraniun235]

A ST based FTL shell system would have more flexibility than an Honorverse one, and be capable of departing the system and waiting for and ftl signal to return to a prearranged rendezvous point.

What's to stop another enemy force from intercepting and destroying the sleeves? Or for a warp-equipped enemy to do an end-run past the attacking force to chase down and destroy the sleeves?

As I see it such a system would only be really applicable in a scenario where the sleeve-equipped ships are attacking a fixed installation where the defenders must stay and engage on the aggressor's terms. Any other situation simply invites the enemy force to slip past and destroy your FTL capability.

[Thag]

I'm getting a little lost here: are these sleeves basically like the SW jettisonable hyperspace engines?