Well, they might not work good as terran, but they look like another branch of Terran weapon doctrine using heavy mass drivers instead of beam weapons (like what might have happened if they never came across Shivans).
====
OT:
Thei're called Mon Calamari, Mr. Star Trek. 
I feel insulted.

I was assumed to be a trekkie when I have only watched 10 episodes tops.
Actually, I was referring to the Quarren that share the Mon Calamari's homeworld of Dac, and made the rounded-skeletal ships for the Confederacy of Independent systems. (Which is coincidentally, my favourite SW faction, ship-design wise, and the source of my username.) IMO, the Mon Calamari are too widely known to get away with "borrowing" design aspects. That's going off on a tangent though.