Hi,
what about a new component that works similar to Engines for design.
The new component is called Passive Sensor it merges EM and TH sensors which will still have their research tree.
So you can design one passive sensor with both EM or TH, one only and of course also decide the tech level.
Where is the novelty?
You can then have Military or Commercial sensor where commercial are larger and Military ones are smaller. Maybe commercial could also have a small penalty range to avoid exploits.
Thoughts?