Actually it has a series of forward firing beam cannons in the fore and some others on the side pods as well as some missile launchers. In the series they're often firing at distances too great for most projectile weapons to be of any effectiveness. Plus they have shields that often even the beam weapons have trouble penetrating, but when the shields fail very often the ship does not survive. The lesser ships are commonly destroyed en mass, which doesn't matter as both sides are using fleets of ships numbering into the thousands.
Wished there was more of this.
Good work!