....If so, can he spend a focus merely to give it back to himself?

He is friendly with himself, but he is NOT at range 1-3 with himself. Ships are at Range 0 of themselves in 2nd edition.

The three most common things which will prevent a ship from using it's ability on itself:

• Range 0 isn't included in the ability. This is the case with Garven. (reworded for clarity)
• The ability says " another friendly ship." I think there are still some of these out there, but I don't have any off the top of my head.
• The ability says "a friendly ship in arc." A ship is never in it's own firing arc. Kanan Jarrus (VCX) is an example of this.

There is, indeed, a range 0.

Ex.: Star Wars X-Wing Rules Reference v. 1.0.3 Effective 4/10/19: "• Stationary: The 󲁡 (stationary) bearing does not move the ship from its current position. This bearing does not have a corresponding template. ◊ A ship that executes this maneuver counts as executing a maneuver, does not overlap any ships, does trigger the effects of overlapping any obstacles at range 0 , and continues to be at range 0 of any objects it was touching before executing this maneuver."

18 minutes ago, dmcgee1 said:

There is, indeed, a range 0.

Ex.: Star Wars X-Wing Rules Reference v. 1.0.3 Effective 4/10/19: "• Stationary: The 󲁡 (stationary) bearing does not move the ship from its current position. This bearing does not have a corresponding template. ◊ A ship that executes this maneuver counts as executing a maneuver, does not overlap any ships, does trigger the effects of overlapping any obstacles at range 0 , and continues to be at range 0 of any objects it was touching before executing this maneuver."

They ment mentioned in the ability...

Then my apologies.

46 minutes ago, dmcgee1 said:

Then my apologies.

No prob. I probably could have worded it better, and just rewrote the line for clarity.