I also think that this mission is the most difficult one to achieve with no loss. I have try about 8 times at easy level and finish most of the time with one capship blown.
So I agree that the difficulty is a bit too high. But remember guys that the difficulty balance is a real pain to adjust.
Some hints :
- Save your afterburner fuel with the auto-glide trick
- Adjust power levels : lower engine level to the miminum, it gives your shields and guns a good boost. Following the difficulty level and the battle time, you can again adjust between shields and guns.
- Dart dumfire missiles : they are far much powerful than the others, at least x2, see technical database. No cat's fighter survives a single dumfire hit. The dumbfire speed is very good and the bomber are easy to target with little practice. I usually miss some hits but anyway not more than with auto-targeted missiles. Just be sure to not fire when you are very near the enemy, the dumbfire blast will blown you too.
- Unfortunately, I recently see that the B key does not target the nearest bomber or capship missile, only the next on the list. So a workaround: verify the distances by pressing the B key N times, afterburn to the nearest bomber group. And if there are other types of cats around, you have the choice : target another bomber B key (with the risk the next bomber's very far) or H key to blow the near fighters and be clear to after auto-target the near bombers.
Hope it helps, the reward is a medal only obtained in this mission