It's much more like SFC than it is like MechWarrior. From a ship-to-ship combat sense it's not quite as nuanced as SFC... Well it is and it isn't. There are no firing arcs (any ship can fire in any direction with any weapons) so things like turn rates aren't really important. There are no segmented shields - you just have shields, armor, hull, kaboom. There's nothing like seeking weapons really (what seeking weapons there are act more like slow direct-fire weapons; well, i mean, they move really fast, and they are possible to "dodge" in a sense, but not like anything SFC had).
There is a lot of math to consider. For example: my current Battlecruiser is built to tank, which means to take as much damage as i can without blowing up. The way i do this is by having lots of armor repair and lots of resistances to the four different types of damage. Finding a good loadout or fit is an important part of the game. It's more like SFC3 than it is like SFC2, truth be told.
The really nuanced part is the industry/economy - nearly everything is built by players, sold by players, bought be players, etc. Things that are built be players are built using ingredients mined and refined or built by players, etc.
But anyways - back to topic...
'fraid I don't know a lot about Fed tactics... if you want Rom tactics, that i can help you with