Fear The Caracal

I'm afraid of Caracals. 

Awwww!

No, no, not those fluffy cutesy pies. These things:

*shudder*

Not just any old Caracal, but Rapid Light Missile Launcher Caracals that arrive on the scene and terrify my frigate and destroyer gangs. Like this guy for example:

[Caracal, Caracal - rapid]
Damage Control II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
Ballistic Control System II
50MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Large Shield Extender II
Warp Disruptor II
Large Shield Extender II
Sensor Booster II, Scan Resolution Script
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Light Missile
Rapid Light Missile Launcher II, Caldari Navy Mjolnir Light Missile
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Acolyte II x2

The DPS is not impressive (370 with drones) overall and if my small destroyer gang or even frigate gang came upon one, I would happily engage. Sure, even with some logi we'd lose one or two pilots but we would win out overall as the burst damage (825 damage every ~2.5 seconds for about 50 seconds) would require the 35 second reload and we'd overwhelm them hopefully in that period.

But as on the end of Sunday night's fleet when 5 Caracals showed up, even outnumbering them almost three to one in kitchen sink fleet of destroyers, frigates, and a couple frigate logi, I knew we were in for a rough go and decided to warp off the fleet and not engage. I felt that our two little logi ships would not save any more than one ship if the enemy spread the damage, and even less if one Caracal targeted the logi first. I figured we would lose 5 or more ships in the first minute and be easily outclassed from there on in.

Give me a proper doctrine fleet with more logi and some ewar with my Destroyers and I'd give it a go, but it still scares me.