I haven't even thought about atmospheres yet but this is an interesting idea. I wouldn't restrict it to small craft but allow a general rule for making a spacecraft atmosphere-capable. I imagine it would more commonly used for smaller craft such as fighters though.
Steve
Finally, we can crash 200kt ships into planets at relativistic velocities
Who needs orbital bombardment when you've got ground support.
Also, launching missiles from a craft at a high initial velocity would add to the velocity of the missile, which would be awesome (e.g, ship at 10,000kps, average missile speed of 20,000kps = actual missile velocity of 30,000kps. Not taking into account acceleration. Should allow for missiles to cover a much larger range for static or slow targets, e.g bombing runs on cruisers with c-fractional velocity missiles.)
On the subject of drones, anything a fighter can do a drone can do better. Still, drones would be strictly limited to their programming, or their controller aboard the carrier vessel. I'm quite sure a single controller could control a full squadron of drones-- more likely multiple squadrons for that matter, which means dependent on squadron size a similar fighter-equipped ship could be outnumbered 10~30:1, before we even get into the maneuvering advantages drones would have over fighters. Assuming a single operator would be controlling 10 drones per squadron I don't think three to five squadrons is entirely out of the question. Personally I'd go with smaller squadron sizes, but assigning each operator more individual squadrons-- and I'm quite sure a drone commander's CIC would easily be able to house a few handfuls of operators.
-- Addenum: Of course, this is all considering that such drones would be within the command range of their carrier vessel and a smart enemy commander would no to stay the hell away from that command range unless he had enough armour and energy weapons to be sure of a very fast victory. Beyond it, fighters would be the superior choice, as the human element would allow for modification of orders on the fly, while any drones running their pre-programmed orders would need to be updated from the command ship. Hitting drones in an evasive pattern of movement with a wire laser would be horrendous.
Of course, you could just launch more drones with different orders-- they are disposable after all.
Also, if the CV was destroyed any surviving drones could revert to kamikaze orders and destroy any targets marked before the CV bit the dust, or just attack everything in range that isn't an IFF friendly before running out of fuel or hitting the operational limit and returning to a friendly carrier. Again, fighters could do this but I think they'd probably just dump missiles and alter course to power away to the nearest carrier before they run out of fuel.