The Wasp fighter is the second best interceptor in the game just behind the Spark. It is fast, its PD laser don't miss, and its proximity mine will create a death zone against any other fighters and missiles. With 6 fighters by wings, they also tend to outnumber any other crafts. All in all, without a doubt an ideal interceptor.
Or at least in theory.
For some context, in some of my recent campaigns, i have been experimenting eschewing Point Defenses on my ships. To compensate for that, i assign an interceptor filled carrier as an escort to whatever needs it the most. With the escort order, the carrier will send its fighters to protect its designated target when in danger. And it worked! I was now flying a PD free fleet, delegating the anti-fighter and anti-missile duty to a bunch of escort Mora filled with Interceptors.
Initially, the Wasp seemed like a perfect fit for that role, unfortunately i quickly noted how... Absent my interceptors have been in all of my battles. They properly showed up for the first clash between fleets, and then started to disappear, leaving my PD-less ships vulnerable to missiles and bombers. Surprisingly, that issue was much less noticeable with say, Talons, or some other mod interceptors, which were steadily covering my butt for the entire fight.
After a digging a bit deeper, i found the issue with my Wasps, and it wasn't the interceptors themselves, but the carriers. The replacement rate would quickly reach the 30% mark, only trickling down a few lone fighters once in a while to the frontline. With other fighters, it would rarely go below 50%. There's one reasons for that : Wasps are fragile, half as tough as a Talon, so they tend to die a lot. And because there's 6 of those per wing, that makes for a lot of dead fighters, which degrade the replacement rate very, very quickly. Once the carrier reaches 30% RT, the interceptors can no longer fullfill their role, and getting back up to an acceptable RT level becomes nearly impossible, especially during hectic battles.
Two solutions to fix this. Either makes the Wasp tougher to prevent it from dying in droves. Armoring it doesn't seems appropriate for a high-tech drone, as for a shielded Wasp like back when Starsector was Starfarer, that would make it too much like the Spark in my opinion.
The other solution, much simpler and appropriate in my opinion, would be lowering the replacement time. It will still die by the bucketload, but i would matter less. I tested it with a modified base replacement time of 2, then 3 instead of 5 (like the Talon). BRT of 2 allows for a constant screening around 90/100% replacement rate in small skirmishes, and would go down around 40/50% in intense battles. BRT of 3 doesn't makes the replacement rate go below 80% in small battles, but will eventually reach 30% during larger encounters.
For reference, i did most of my testing on the missions Hornet's Nest and Nothing Personal with autopilot, with a Wasp loaded Heron as the escort in both scenarios.
Also, kinda off-topic, but not completely. I would like the ability to target a friendly ship on the tactical screen. It's possible to do so for enemies, but not allies, and would be useful when you want to send your fighters to cover one of your ships that is too far to be "targeted" normally.