Starting weapons invisible in inventory?

I just started the game as Federation, did the tutorial and entered a few battles. Without adding any equipment to my start ships, they were flyable and usable in combat.

Yet when I go to the “equip ship” screen, the “primary weapon” slot is shown as empty. Screenshot attached for the “Lynx”, but the same happened for the “Swift” and the “Raptor”.

After buying a new Assault Laser T1 Mk1 and installing it on the Raptor, it shows in the Primary Weapon Slot. The firepower seems not to change.

I can move the Assault Laser T1 Mk1 to the Lynx, and it works there and replaces the default weapon…

Overall, it looks like each ship has a standard weapon that is invisible in the menus, but is automatically installed when no other is installed. Is that intentional?

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Yes this is intentional. Because it can happen that players just forget to equip a weapon or just start a battle so they have at least a standard weapon.

Starting a battle without a weapon would not be nice.