would it not be possible to make npc fighters ammunition for a kind of missile launcher? you whould equip an npc launcher turret onto your carrier and stock up on npc ship ammo and fly off. then you could press fire and you would release an npc fighter. they could be more powerful depending on what class of turret it is (affecting the class of ammo you could buy) and different npc faction ammo could be sold by the according faction.