You can also take a look at Critical Mass (windowsgames.co.uk) which has some good ideas. You control a squadron of ships and fly missions to earn medals, credits to buy better ships, and increase your rank.
The ships have components which can be damaged (engines, stealth, radar, etc). The movement is preprogrammed - you select where you want your ship to go and how many missiles to fire and click End Turn. Then all ships move and fire. Then you can issue new commands.
One downside is that you cannot upgrade your ship - you are just always buying new ones. You do not have any sort of skills that improve, just your ships get bigger. It would be nice to add a story and RPG elements to your character and also be able to upgrade specific parts of your ship instead of buying new ones.