How about a solution that might make everyone a little happier...
The ability to send out a patrol mission. Instead of calling it a DF guarding mission.... hehe.
If you think you are going to be hit, have been hit, hit someone else, then you can send a fleet of ships out to a patrol(should only be available on DF slot). This has the ability of possibly being able to ninja a bunch of helpless RCYs and lets face it, that prospect has to appeal to everyone here. We love to R & P the weak in this game
** Patrol Mission max patrol time is: 1hr ** That should prevent campers from extended patrols and camping out on the DF.
The other thing it would do is cause people to actually send escorts with the RCYs, which they should HAVE to do. I mean, they don't have cloaking devices right! You can't ESP a DF, so it puts an element of risk in the mission to recycle, makes it a bit more exciting than just clicking recycle!
We don't need new tech to accomplish, just more options with the current tech which I think is perfectly already capable of getting this done...