The "official" version is more or less just a "mission kill", detonating a torp in front of the launch bays, throwing the carrier's launch gear out of whack enough that attempting to launch would've been suicidal. Since the game doesn't allow for intentionally premature detonation of torpedoes, or partial damage like that, leeching was made the "disable" option (and that only if you defected the first time; if you didn't defect till later you had to kill the Lex, as you fly that mission in the Hellcat in which you defected, which of course doesn't have leech weaponry available to it except for the missiles, which IIRC don't totally take out a carrier).