Explorers can function as cheap baby carriers if you load them with either Small Craft gunboats or true ASFs, or a mix of both. Also note that it has enough bay doors to launch all of them in a single turn. :)
Could make for a fun bait and switch scenario, where pirates are drawn in by trying to capture an Explorer and ransom the VIPs these ships often carry, only to be surprised(and possibly outgunned) by the quartet of combat craft it launches when they get close. >:D
Fun fact: If you want your bait to be more mobile, a Behemoth DropShip can do the exact same thing on a much larger scale.
For a humble-ship-I-love of my own, I have to put forth the Aurora. Nobody will ever be fooled into calling it an assault ship*, but this light ship has the armor to survive a light scrap, and the weapons are well set up to force crits on fighter squadrons and most non-PWS DropShips. Combine that with the sheer number of bay configurations available, and I kinda agree with the TRO text calling it the perfect ship for small mercenary commands, or any force needing to fill that last hole in their transport TO&E. In particular I keep coming back to the Aurora(CV) any time I think about system patrol ships like you'd find keeping order in areas with heavy space assets, such as Belter-style communities, shipyard complexes, or any other point where space stations are clustered together.
*Except for the Gunship model, because holy crap. It might not have any more armor than the rest of them, but for however long its plating does hold, even an Achilles has to respect a ship with a max forward firepower of just over thirty capital damage and the heat sinks to use it. :o
