The quest for unlocking the army has several steps, it is described in the walk-through document in the original post. TLDR: spent one night in Tenaris orbit with a bunch of bot crates in your cargo and a few million credits on the Bank so that you are a worthwhile target for pirates.
Upgrade of the base is possible regarding hangar and warehouse and special hyper gate portal. Upgrade of the interior is only available from v250 which will be publicly released end of September.