Ahh, I just didn't get far enough down into there then. Thanks (I had a feeling it was there, but first few levels just gave me that one building that gives 3k each material so I went blah to it) Still wouldn't mind seeing a full tech tree somewhere.
You can close war points as well, which lets you do something called turtling. You close all the warp points in a system and then build a system shield that prevents more from being opened. you are essentially invulnerable.