I can see it being used in high sec but I'm not sure if it's necessary to have so many high slots. Maybe 3 at the most. Also, the orca is not a capital ship. It's in the industrial command class but I can see it being repurposed for being a suitable warbarge using maybe large OB guns while other ships provide support in low sec.

Hmm, interesting. According to the prerequisites the Rorqual (the big brother of the Orca) call for Capital Ships Level 2 and Capital Industrial Ships Level 1. The Orca on the other hand doesn't call for any of those skills. I guess CCP lumped the two ships together since they are technically both developed by ORE (Outer Ring Excavations).



I forgot about the clone vat bay. Since the Rorqual is the big brother of the Orca and is capable of fending off against attackers it seems like the logical choice at first to be the kind of ship that can double as a warbarge. It is also one of the few ships in Eve capable of operating the clone vat bay which should be re-purposed for this kind of role. Unfortunately the Rorqual has some major drawbacks.

1. The Rorqual is expensive as hell. Current regional prices in The Forge put this ship at approximately 2.7 billion ISK just for the hull alone and that's for the sell orders. 2.4 billion ISK for buy orders.
2. The Rorqual is NOT permitted to enter high-sec space. This is a very powerful ship capable of fighting on its own even against a battleship in the hands of a competent and careful pilot. That and it's the only ship that can compress ores for maximum space.
3. Once it enters Industrial Reconfiguration Mode to enhance its abilities, it can't move at all for the duration of the mode which makes it completely vulnerable during that period.

The Orca seems like a good alternative since it's vastly cheaper at approximately 647 million ISK and can operate in both high-sec and low-sec, but even that has its own downsides.

1. The Orca can't fit guns of any size or type.
2. The Orca is not a combat-capable ship like it's big brother. It probably can fight but that would be extremely situation.
3. The Orca is not able to house a clone vat bay.

The practical move would then be to introduce a specific class of ship that not only has a clone vat bay dedicated only to Legionaries while providing cargo space for installations, gear, and vehicles, but also has the mobility of a smaller class at an affordable price. Also, it would have to be tailored specifically for small groups like a squad.

It's very unlikely that this ship would have enough room to house any RDVs or any MCC for that matter given how small it will likely be. The Orca is at least 1.4 km on the long axis while the Rorqual is at 2.4 km long. If a small warbarge would be introduced it would likely be somewhere around that size range and thus will probably not be able to house any MCC or RDV given the space it might only have for all the other things it needs to haul. This means that the installations and vehicles will likely need to be dropped using inertial dampeners rather than RDVs. Legionaries will likely need to drop in the same way if there are no CRUs on the ground and the clone vat bay is all that's left.

But on top of all of this, this mini-warbarge will need to be designed to survive low-sec travel or at least have a fighting chance.