Why bring the smaller ships along?
In The Last Jedi, The Resistance is running away from the First Order fleet, and they have 4 ships: a Heavy Cruiser (The Raddus), and 3 support ships: a "Bunkerbuster" (The Ninka), a Medical Frigate (The Anodyne), and a Cargo Frigate (The Vigil). They bring all 4 ships along with them, and the support ships gradually run out of fuel and get destroyed.
It sure seemed like they knew this was going to happen. They didn't seem surprised at all, just sad about the (unavoidable) loss.
My question is:
If the support ships are going to be lost eventually anyway, what's the point of bringing them along? If they'd evacuated those ships right away and transferred the fuel to The Raddus, wouldn't they have made it farther before running out?
Best Answer
Transferring fuel between aircraft and ships is something we do a lot here on Earth. However, it's not something anybody in their right mind would try while running at full speed from a pursuing enemy - one who is also firing at them.
It's entirely likely that you can't exchange fuel with shields up, and probably dangerous to try doing so while both ships are moving (it's already been established in Empire Strikes Back and Rogue One that capital ships are cumbersome and slow to manoeuvre).
As for why the smaller ships weren't abandoned sooner - the Resistance evidently knew exactly at what range they were safe, and how much fuel they had in total. There was no reason to abandon these ships sooner than absolutely necessary, just in case help arrived. That would be a tremendous waste of resources!
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