Jubei HimuraI flew my Courier on many o'combat mission. Did me well, and I looked damn sexy too.
Definitely it can work in combat missions vs single targets ... but only until you get small to medium ships with low ranks. Once the mission targets are Dangerous + with Anaconda or Vette it is over. The ship do not have a punch for it.
Yes, iCourier can do combat, but for me to say that a "ship is good", it needs more than that. It needs to be able to harass strong targets in CZ and Haz RES on its own. That are spec ops wings in CZ and wings of 3 high ranked medium + large ships in Haz Res with pinnacle being able to solo a wing assassination mission. IMHO, only one small ship could qualify for this - the Vulture.