[douglas]

For defending a planet, it's enough to just leave them in cargo on the planet. They will be launched automatically if combat occurs and recovered when it's over.

For offensive use, you'll want carriers. Fighters can't warp on their own, and getting a large number of fighters launched out of combat without clumping them all into a single fighter group that can't divide its massively overkill volley is a pain. Meanwhile, carriers can warp just like any other ship, launch the fighters in combat in groups of whatever size their strategy is set for, and are big enough to take advantage of the Huge weapon mount for the other 50% of their tonnage.