An E11 would make him more popular, but completely delete the reason why he is there. Shouldnt really need to explain that.

You'll kill more with a trooper class. I'd say that is quite useful. With less UAV capabilities you are more likely to help you squad in this way...... since you will be more likely to stick with them, instead of gallivanting off on your own following red dots.

You sound like the people bitching about the Support role in World in Conflict and the Medic in Project Reality.

The Support role in WiC doesn't have tanks or infantry. It has Light AA (a quad gun thing which can also be turned on infantry), light artillery, heavy artillery, APC's, humvees that can transport troops and repair, recovery tanks that repair quickly, transport helicopters, that sort of thing. The result is that a lot of players find it incredibly boring. Well, I thought, let me give it a chance. I did, several times. Every single time I got literally overwhelmed juggling long-range artillery far behind our lines, repair vehicles and short-range mortars attached to other players' units around the map, the insertion and extracting of infantry, and, on top of that, the very rapidly TA points* I had to decide where, when and how to spend or give to other players. It was not a boring experience - it was so hectic and adrenaline-pumping that I simply literally couldn't handle it and always ended up 100% forgetting about one of the branches under my control. I felt like an Air Traffic Controller in charge of an airport in NYC.

This is the case with a lot of support assets in a lot of games. The assets are incredible, vital parts of their team, but "everyone" have become so accustomed to arcade games where "support" classes are really just another kind of run-and-gun classes with support measures added to make them unique somehow. This means that when an actual support class comes along, people loudly cry foul because the class doesn't let them bunny hop around mowing down enemies like they're used to. Bottom line: If the Officer in FS is useless or boring in your eyes, then I'm sorry, but to be frank, you are using it wrong. The Support class in WiC shouldn't get tanks. The Medic in PR shouldn't get a scoped machine gun. The Officer in FS shouldn't get an A-280. The Commander in FH2 shouldn't necessarily get a ton of different toys. The Probe Droid shouldn't be able to mow down infantry like it currently can. Reason? They are support units.

Bottom line: We have the Trooper for the run-and-gun types and the Officer for teamwork-oriented types.
Bottom line: Despite everyone for some reason treating it like Battlefront 3, this is in fact a teamwork mod. Making the Officer a combat class would work against htat.

EDIT:
Officer's tasks:
- Tactical VOIP/messaging to squad (for example "take cover", "advance", "player x, get down", "player y, use grenades", "player z and d, cover player f as he takes that tank out", etc.)
- Strategic VOIP/messaging to other squads (for example "we handle Junkyard, you take Slave Quarters", "can you hold the Palace Ruins, or should we help you?", etc.)
- Strategic VOIP/messaging to Commander (as above)
- Setting up spawn beacon
- Moving spawn beacon as needed
- Setting up firebase with MKII/E-Web
- Mowing down enemies with MKII/E-Web
- Fighting
- Healing
- Resupplying
- Keeping an eye on the minimap, trying to maintain an overview of the battle
- Determining the next move based on info gained from minimap and immediate surroundings
- And more.

How, pray tell, is juggling all that boring?

That could actually be an idea. Swap the range of the UAV droid and Sensor Device and then swap sensor device and UAV droid. Then tone down the number of times the device can be fired (no reload). Officer gets the droid, Trooper gets homing beacons and sensor device, but still needs to rely on Officer.

Again, let me say I'm completely baffled as to why people find the UAV droid so 100% vital. I'm not saying this to take the piss out on someone, I'm honestly clueless. Why has the UAV droid suddenly become 100% vital?

It isn't in PR.
It isn't in vanilla.
It isn't in FH.
It isn't in Battlefront.
It isn't in FH2.
It isn't in CoD4.
It isn't in ArmA.
It isn't in CS.
EDIT: In fact... can anyone name as much as a single FPS game in which the Trooper has a means of constantly knowing who's around him at all times? 'Cause come to think of it, I can't.

So how on Earth come that all of a sudden, in FS, it's so 100% all-consumingly vital that without it the standards Assault/Rifleman/SMG/Sniper/Shotgun class is 100% worthless and unable to attack or defend, squads will run past each others without making contact, and maps will have to be redone? And all this when the Trooper actually does have two homing beacons, which is two homing beacons more than he has in PR, vanilla, FS, Battlefront, CS, CoD4, and ArmA?

I honestly do not get it. Please, someone, explain this to me.

EDIT: And OK, let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the UAV is a 100% vital element to gameplay. Fine, stick with the squad and let the Officer use his Sensor Device. Problem solved . If you like teamwork (FS=Teamwork mod), that is.