This is another reason why base maintenance is boring as hell, 16 trips in a 5K just for the shield?
That's after you've traveled through all of Sirius and Gallia to get the supplies needed to build it.
Screw that.
Is it really that profitable to own a base? Are cloaks priced accordingly so the effort put in to it is worth it? How much are you making per hour from your cloak factory?
I have no idea how long it takes to churn out a cloak, but I image in the time it takes, you could easily make enough money trading/mining to buy as many cloaks as you want.