[grumbler]

SJ, how does the AI decide which ship in a fleet is the leader, do you know?

If it does it by tonnage, that would be doubleplus good, because in any general ship class (escort, destroyer, cruiser, battleship, dreadnought, base ship) the distinction between "light" normal, and "heavy" is armor - they generally have the same components otherwise. If the AI makes the largest ship the leader, this would result in the most heavily armored ship becoming the leader, which is the way you say it should be.