[Spaceships] High-End Spaceships

[Mailanka]

I'm not entirely sure I understand the problem. It's that you want to have (for example) a bunch of F-15 fighters, but there are "mook" F-15s that are easily shot down and "elite" F-15 fighters that are not?

Well, a lot of that difference be in the pilot. Someone with pilot 18 is much harder to shoot down and is much more likely to get on your 6 than someone with pilot 12. If you start adding in the rules for Damage Control and gunnery and such, then the difference between a 250 point pilot and a 50 point pilot becomes very clear.

It's also quite probable that even though they all look like F-15s, some are wussy F-15As and some are totally awesome F-15Es (or whatever). They might have mostly the same traits, but you could legitimately alter things like what armor they have one, or the quality of their firearms, or what their engines are. These are rather broad changes, but they can certainly fit.

And finally, you have the solution you already devised.

I might add that the difference between a mook and a non-mook is often just the tag "mook." Mooks typically never make defense rolls and a single hit will take them down. That might also be appropriate here, depending on your genre conventions.