Yeah, at least for the latest humans-only Version of P&N, antimatter and acid do horrific damage to physical materials, with the 1/4 damage to shields ability.
It also distinguishes between offensive and defensive weapons with the supply usage...
Torpedo tubes and missile launchers, for example cost almost nothing to build, but they suck supplies like its the end of the world.
Lasers and other energy weapons use up basicall no supplies, but cost heavy radioactives for power.
Thus, you can keep a huge pile of missile boats defending your territory (being very close to supply stashes, which they'll need basically after every battle), while in order to attack effectively, you'll need to spend big bucks to maintain all those energy weapons so you can fight more than one battle before you go home
