The game is designed such that for every system the, e.g., best weapon always inflicts the same damage to the best ship (comparing identical armor grades). That is, ship hitpoints and weapon powers rise in sync (note the same horizontal lines for armor () & weapon () data points for each system). The only exceptions are
Vega: armor of the R10 ships is greatly overstrengthened by factor 2 (to aid new players). Note, Vega conquest requires you to uninstall armor to restore a healthy weapon-armor-balance.
Sol: armor of the R60 ships is overpowered by +45%, compared to the steady rise in weapon power.
Sirius: armor of the R85 ships is slightly underpowered by -25%, presumably to challenge survival skills for advanced players and foster multi-player game-play.

On an absolute scale, ship armor and weapon power rise exponentially throughout the game (exponentials appear linear in a semi-logarithmic plot). An exponential ∝ 2^3/17*rank governs both the rise in weapon power and armor HP (true for R18–R45 ships). Weaker exponentials ∝ 2^3/34*rank apply to R1–R3 and R10–R18 ships, whereas R45–R70 ships ∝ 2^3/25*rank, and R70–R85 ships ∝ 2^1/10*rank. There's a prominent kink in ship armor and weapon power in Sirius.