You need four charges laid to blast the station.

The trick is to kill all the enemy fighters in the area before you attack the defense turrets. Ignore whatever the commanders say (they're wrong many times) and ignore the laser turrets until you kill all Coalition fighters. This way when the Rippers finally arrive, you only have to worry about the new Coalition fighters that jump into the fight. Those newcomers all come in close together, which means you can attack several at once and focus on the ones heading towards the Mammoth cargo ship that jumped in.

I reccommend using the Shroud fighter at first. Two advantages with that one: it's very fast, allowing to get from are to area faster; and it has a cloaking device: enagage it when targeted by the ion cannon to break target-lock. And when the new enemy fighters come in to attack the Rippers, you can cloak, afterburn to the enemy fighters, snuggle up behind them undetected, de-cloak and send a load of Screamer missles into the tails of several of them.

I usually stay close to the Mammoth and protect the Rippers that are lined up close to it. Thus you avoid wasting your time chasing distant fighters (they'll come in close anyway) and don't need to bother about the ion cannon, since you're out of range. BTW, I've heard that the DC version of SL requires 6 rather than 4 charges (on PC) to complete the mission, so it may depend on which version you're playing.

The only further bit of advice I can give (As the others have covered it ) is when you hit the turrets take out those pointing up to the top of the station first as they are the ones that usually take out most rippers. Then help yourself till the fighters jump in, once that happens the mammoth is the best area to be. The ion cannon takes out a few rippers but whatcha gonna do!!!!


Skymouse

Actually managed to do this one with a Crusader (my fav. ship and I'm loyal to it, see?) though it was on EASY. If you hug the station's superstructure very closely - and I do mean VERY close - then, with a bit of luck, you can stick to areas where the ion cannon can't target you. Mind you, I did use two fuel pods on this mission due to the amount of blatting backwards and forwards defending stuff that's required.
As for tactics, I agree with everything written before. It's essential to take out the fighters before the turrets. Take screamers because you will need to take things out fast.

Ban REVERSE THRUST! Fly something other than a phoenix for a change!