What build are you using? When I played this last week, the balance in that particular mission seemed to be a little off from what I remember, and I made some adjustments to it in the 1.04 version to compensate for that. It may have something to do with the build or media VP changes, which I have had trouble with in the past.
I largely ignore the bombers in that mission unless they attack me. The warships and their beams are meant to your main target, not the bombers. This was actually one of the differences I noticed though. The bombers seemed more aggressive than I remember, both against you as well as the Minotaur. I find a Maxim alone good enough to take down the beams, but Trebuchets or Stilettos will make it easier.
If you are not seeing the turret submodels from a distance, you may need to turn up the ingame graphics settings.