I don't quite understand how the research upgrades come into play. I researched fighter drones for the guided station, but didn't find anything to upgrade nor did the levelling upgrades contain anything of the sort.
Yeah had quite some issues with the drones, but updated with the most recent version so they should somewhat work now. :)
Regarding the leveling upgrades what they do is unlock the ability to level up weapons so you can choose which upgrades you want for them, but the weapon needs to be higher than lvl 1 to be able to upgrade. "1/5": 1=current lvl, 5=max lvl.