No need for officer if fleet doctrine is Aggressive or higher. (In my case, I leave it on Steady AI, and I do not want to change it just to accommodate one or two problem ships. I will need officer for Aggressive AI if doctrine is Steady.)
I tried Aurora with blasters and sabots. When I pilot it, enemies die. When Steady AI pilots it, it hangs back, does not get close enough to use blasters, chucks a few sabots here and there ineffectively, but is mostly passive and will let something with superior range like Eagle kill it, or at least lose the PPT war. With Aggressive AI, Aurora got close enough to use both blasters and sabots and overpowered Eagle. I wished Steady AI would use a relatively straightforward loadout like blasters, sabots, and appropriate hullmods, but it failed miserably the times I tried. When Aggressive or Reckless AI pilots it, Aurora behaves like it supposed to, charge in and blast the enemy.
Conquest with Storm Needlers behaves similarly to hard-flux Aurora. Needs Aggressive AI to work properly.