I found most of the shit in the game was pretty well balanced and had a point, but that lance weapon seemed like it was designed to take down the kind of beast of a ufo that you needed to take down just to be able to research it in the first place. Just struck me as weird.
But then again, maybe you're supposed to throw everything you have at the enemy in the first place to take that battleship down and suffer the damaged ships and loss of resources, and then the lance cannon is your reward. You'll never lose again...
PSN Barrysama