That would actually be legit, but I doubt that the game's code can handle that (at least as of now, not saying that it would impossible to change/add). I have a previous post that points out that the game would be much more interesting if the player could split their fleet (not just drop ships in/out of storage), but I accept that might not be added because a player might get screwed when their fleet gets caught/wiped randomly hiding in an asteroid belt and the player isn't there.
However, that wouldn't be a problem for patrol teams. But, I also have a different previous post that suggested/agreed that the pip-squeak patrols shouldn't even attempt to engage a player's large fleet running dark way somewhere, but should follow/shadow player's fleet and summon (bring, not spawn) whatever larger fleets might be available in-system (or generate one that takes off from planet if none available, I guess).
This would seem a reasonable alternative, unless the combined patrol is still hilariously weak compared to your Uber Pirate armada running dark in the black...!