Eventually it will. It's also possible that a Duranium crash prevents this.
The planet has the starting homeworld resources, but it doesn't seem like they're mining it.
I've been told conventional NPRs stay such, but don't quote me on that. As for fleet make-up I'd suggest reading some AARs. They helped me a lot in understanding the military aspect. Just don't use mine, for role-playing purposes I've intentionally designed ships that will probably be decimated on their first combat mission. The most efficient route is to specialize every ship, so you'll an ASM design, an AMM design, a PD design and so on. I don't like to do that just because it feels wrong to me, but that's just personal preference.
I've been reading a couple and they've been quite helpful. Should I stick primarily to beam and missile tech since I've already started down that path?