When they went E5 I remember her saying switched, not moved. Switching plans mid battle is not the same as advancing in phases in the same plan. But who knows what she was thinking.
My point was that while it was remarkably stupid to go in the first place, they did go, and there was no way anyone could have planned a way out of that scenario with only what resources they had available. Calling someone stupid for not coming up with a plan to escape an inescapable situation is just unfair. I would agree that they should have tried to find another way to stop the terrorists but considering the ship was off at the asteroid base the only real option they had was to go within normal weapons range and take them out that way, thus making going a total gamble on the endurance of the pilots.