I have an idea, maybe not only me, but, what about new ship class, let call them mineboats.
Ship on which you can mount 3 or 4 mine droppers, and with special cargo for carrying a lot of mines (maybe some new special mines for this class).
Those ships could be equiped with 2-4 turrets (for example), with armor and shield like SHF, and agile like GB.
I think those ships could be used for making tactical mine fields in large battles, or to making a mine traps, or they would be usefull in transport escort.
Just an idea, hope, you'd like it