Small Ships--Why?

To the Wise and Venerable list,

I apologize in advance for bringing up a topic I am certain must have
been 
discussed many times on this group.
I have had little success locating references in the archive so I will
beg 
your indulgence here.

My group has been having discussions as of late regarding the usefulness
of 
smaller vessels (10 to 50 mass).  So far, we have found only a couple of

uses for them.	As a note, we play cinematic rules.

1. Screen larger ships by taking SM hits for them.
2. Load them with expendable/single shot weapons (ie SM), fire it and
bug 
out.

Both of these functions can be served in other (possibly more efficient
ways 
(i.e. installing more PDS on the big ships or bigger magazines)

They seem to get smoked well before any beam weapons they are armed with

fire.  Their increased manuverability seems to have little impact on 
increasing their survivability.  It may simply be a function of my play 
group's lack of experience but larger ships seem to be the way to go. In
a 
design-your-own environment or in the Fleet Book fleets, would small
ships 
have a role in your fleet in one-off games?

I often see "house" rules requiring some proportion of smaller ships to 
larger.  To me, this is validation of my perceptions about their
usefulness 
(or lack there of).

When addressing ths problem, I find myself thinking about ocean navies. 
Why 
can't carriers be armed to operate without escorts?  Perhaps in the
answer 
to this question, an answer an be found to the game question.

If there is a problem with smaller ships, is there any simple solution
that 
wouldn't break the play balance?

When I think about what would encourage me to take small ships, I
imagine a 
weapon that could conceivably destroy any size ship with one (lucky)
shot.  
In a universe where a weapon like this existed, I would hesitate to
stack so 
many of my eggs in one basket.

I have considered allowing ships to sacrifice 2 thrust per turn in
exchange 
for some penalty for other ships to hit them. I am not saying this is
wise, 
just a thought.

Any imput from this group on my real or imagined difficulty would be
greatly 
appreciated.

Kindest Personal Regards,
Galen

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