Seems like an odd list overall for Etahn, since he's more of a buffer than your key offensive piece. You want other ships around him with offensive capabilities to make the most of his abilities. Either a couple high PS x-wings, a z-swarm, or mix of three three attack low PS ships (xwings and Bwings). I've run a list with a gold squadron, rookie xwing, and blue squadron that worked well.

As for survivability, I think simply giving him PTL makes him very survivable.

PTL on Etahn works VERY well. But please do yourself a favour and add R2 for 1 measly point the best evvah!

(combined with ptl that is)

I'll plug once more my Etahn build.

Etahn+PTL & R2 (36)

Roark+ion cannon (24)

3x Z95 (36)

This leaves exactly 4 points for upgrades.

(to taste and personal preference, I like Chewie as crew to make Roark that bit more survivable.)

Roark gives one pilot PS12 which scares the bejeezus out of arc dodgers and if you guessed well (enough) and Etahn has him in his arc things can get very ugly very fast.

It also works very, very well vs Tie swarms. (enemy without no shields= #winning! according to Etahn. )

Have not played it vs a Fat Han yet. Might be more difficult but looking forward to it.

If the intent is for Dutch to pass a TL to Etahn drop R7-T1 because there is no point for Etahn to have it, Dutch passes his TL but Etahn already has one from his droid and with predator having the target lock doesn'e really help him

I would suggest moving that over to Dutch, dropping the tactician from Kyle (it only works in arc and keeping things in arc and at a certain range is not something a HWK excels at) and looking for a way to get a turret onto Dutch (dropping the APTs and tactician frees up 8 points, leaving 3 left over dropping VI could give Etahn regular torpedoes)

I would go

Etahn-Predator, Sensor Jammer, (Proton Torpedoes)

Kyle-Ion Turret(Veteran Instincts, Recon Spec)

Dutch-Ion Turret, R7-T1

Or actually since I noticed you don't have a recon spec on Kyle you probably would want one instead of the torpedoes, so using your basic build I think these refinements might help a bit, I put parentheses around the two 4 point options

This exactly the kind of list you don't want Etahn in. Aside from himself you have only one ship rolling two dice to benefit from his ability. That's a heavy price to pay for little reward. Etahn wants to be running with a lot of ships to be effective, or someone like Ten Numb that makes use of crits.

Actually the idea was to let him use his own ability on a heavy first strike, with his wingmen as support, action generators, and secondary users of his ability.

Etahn is a support ship. Maybe it'll be fun for you to play a list with support ships supporting other support ships, but it won't be even the slightest bit competitive. If you want to win, look elsewhere.

Kamikaze strike = Replace someone with BIggs. Replace Ethan with Coran + FCS, PTL, APT.

Focus and Evade with Coran. Shoot target, get Target lock, shoot off APT at end of turn.

Actually the idea was to let him use his own ability on a heavy first strike, with his wingmen as support, action generators, and secondary users of his ability.

What you want can be done more efficiently. For example, get Corran in R1 with PTL and FCS and you're double tapping with four dice in R1 and still can build the rest of your squad to be more flexible.

If you to stick with the basic idea of what you' ex got, Garvin (with the stress droid and maybe VI for a similar feel) is a better option here than Kyle as he brings a more potent ship and at least a second threat. It still won't be a highly competitive list, but it will be more so with all three ships helping each other (making each one better) rather than two being there to support one, and really just the first round of shooting from that one.

Here's the list I'd run if you are wanting to run a more synergistic list like your original but would be more effective overall.

Take out R7-T1 put in R2-D2 and Shield Upgrade. Having the ability to restore 4 shields will really make Ethan tanky. Just watch out for Ion use the supporting fighters to lay on critical hits. If Etahn is still taking too much fire throw in Biggs and a few Z-95s. For EPT put Draw their fire with Biggs. Ethan can pull critical hits off of Bigs and the R2-D2 will just restore that shield. Biggs will take the first batch of fire. After Biggs is gone you still got a tanky damage sponge E-wing.