I've been trying to make some sense of the carrier thing and just had a thought.
What if you had a module, ideally a very large module, which could be placed on capital ships. This module would be called a carrier bay, and its affect would be twofold. First, it would cause this ship in question to act as a range extender, like a starbase, for small and tiny hulled ships. Second, it would cause the speed of any small or tiny ships fleeted with this ship to be that of the ship it's attached to.
Wouldn't that pretty much do it?
Brilliant! Although, I agree with Mascrinthus that Tiny hulls are more like Corvette size ships while Small is like Frigate size. So definately only use Tiny hulls, and not Small hulls, as "Fighters". Even better would be just a new hull called "Fighter".
Let's get stardock to implement it.