did your military labs go boom? 

none of my research labs have been destroyed

Huh, can you post a screenshot of your military tree?

Also, might you have gotten hit by a Kostura cannon recently? They will disable all structures in the gravity well they hit, and this causes research labs to temporarily act like they don't exist.

High level AIs get free research every now and then.

If you hit F12 steam will take a screenshot for you. When you exit Rebellion it will prompt you to upload the image, which you can then get a URL for us.

If you know the labs are there, and you did research the ships, I don't see what a screenshot would do.

Steam Library > Sins > Properties > Verify Files or Integrity or something

Make sure you are up to date, Reb 1.5

Dump all old save game files, they no longer work

Make sure if any mods are enabled they are for the up to date version. 

Open the game in DEV mode and you can then enable the view of everything on the map, or quit but keep in game and look for that canon. I think 2 hrs is planty for AI to get the Canon, they rush research those now.