There should be a way to place multiple deployables without having to navigate through a drop-down menu for every one

[Matthew94]

Dropping a satellite requires a right click and then hovering over "civilian" and then left clicking on "satellite". If you're deploying 50 satellites at a time then that's a ton of repeated actions when it'd be easier to have an option like "Deploy Multiple" where it'll let you keep clicking drop coordinates continuously.

This would also made it much easier to set up minefields and laser turret arrays.

[mr.WHO]

I think beta 3.0 will allow you to deploy multiple deployables.

[Alan Phipps]

The 3.00 beta changelog relating to this aspect so far includes:

Added option to (de)activate multiple deployables at once.
Removed 500m restriction for (de)activating deployables.
Fixed excessive delays when ordering a ship to deploy deployables at a location.

It appears from there that the multiple aspect that changed applies more to activation and deactivation in situ rather than deployment or placement. I could be wrong though.