i would still advise putting a sensor in the drone to protect against loss of target acquisition, or in the case that you drastically overkilled your target.
Roger that. Does the active sensor on the drone matter once it's released it's submunitions? Basically, as I understand it if a previous drone's missiles destroyed the target, a follow up drone that had not yet deployed it's submunitions could lock onto a new enemy it encounters. But if the drone releases it's submunitions and the target dies before they reach it, the submunitions would need active sensors to redirect, correct?
I would like to point out that a 4m km separation range can be a bit on the short side. While it is true that a typical ASM is engaged within that range, your first stage drone is likely much larger than the typical ASM. Larger means quadratically easier to detect, so the drone could be targeted by AMMs much further out. Moreover, the Drone will likely be very very slow, which means AMMs have more time to engage it (and are more likely to hit) before it releases the submunition.
I hadn't actually thought about the size of the drone actually. My current AMMs have a 1.8m km range (Ion Engines), so a 4m release point seemed like a good balance. The Size 4 submunitions seemed fairly optimal at 4.5m KM range with a strength 4 warhead, but I can see raising the range a bit.
On the subject of the separation range, is there a way to check that in a missile you've already researched? Loading the previous design in the Missile Design window gives a 150k km separation range for every missile, even ones I've confirmed through testing are actually at the correct numbers (0k km for my geo sensor drones, for example). I've already found that I forgot to put the correct separation range a few times, and a recent test fire of a 4m km separation drone showed that I must have forgotten again, as the drone didn't release it's munition until (it appeared around) 150k km.
Thanks for all the help all, by the way, sorry for the back-and-forth.