I would seriously consider making that ship use a few smaller engines. What you gain in fuel efficiency you will loose on engineering sections and paying allot more in MSP. Having an engine that expensive and a single one can mean the ship have a mission kill even before it start combat. It also will never be able to repair the engine if it is lost to shock damage or some unlucky hot getting through its armour.
To be honest I think that engine on the carrier is a huge liability... but it is your decision.
In terms of fighters... if you want to get really close to the enemy you will need a screen of interceptors to accompany the bombers. You can have a layered defence of gauss/railgun fighters and AMM/anti-craft multi role fighters.
Although I generally think it is too dangerous to get too close to enemy ships, even with fighters. I tend to want them shooting from a more safer distance. I also want the fire control to be at an even greater distance so they can dart into range and shoot their missiles and start moving away as soon as they released their missiles.
I also tend to use dedicated sensor scouts so I usually paint he target from someplace else but I do keep a dedicated sensor scout in the strike force as a backup too. A 500t high resolution sensor scout can paint the target for the time the missile need into impact from a safe distance and then turn off their sensor and move away unharmed.
Keeping the actual strike group hidden for as long as possible is generally very important.
Now... NPRs are perhaps not famous for very reliant anti-fighter capabilities... perhaps Steve will give them more options in that regard in the future with more dedicated anti-fighter/FAC ships sporting more resolution 5 sensors and smaller lower yield fast and agile missiles.
In my own multi-faction games though using fighters is allot riskier as the opponent will adapt and defend effectively against such tactics.
Personally i tend to design all my ships as if my opponent could effectively defend against them even if I know the NPR might not have that capability.