Actually I like that part in PP. Weapons were always the pinnacle of human development. Basically laser rifle and gaus rifle are the best that human technology can produce. I see no valid reason why PP research should be able to produce some miracle weapons in short time. In UFO and X-Com we had aliens who were the catalyst for development and their weapons was reverse engineered. Here in PP we don’t have alien weapons to research and copy. Pandas carry human weapons. Only exception from this is virophage weapons.