Hello
The Altarians have just gone to war with me and whilst I am within their area of space I have noticed several stacks of their ships like this.....
http://img247.imageshack.us/my.php?image=galciv2exe07ud.jpg
As you can see they have several escort type ships that they leave clumped together, not in a fleet formation, and it is as though for the duration of the war they are forgotten about. There are three other stacks that you might just be able to make out on the mini map, that seem equally forgotten.
I ended up using a single fighter to destroy each of them, in that stack formation, over a couple of turns, or more. Whilst the Altarians were using other ships in their fleets to launch their campaign against me these clumps of stacked ships did nothing.
I am playing the latest beta at the challenging level.
Whether the Altarians consider the ships to be useful or not it would seem more credible to at least have them used in a fleet formation as I am approaching to destroy them.