[rdouglass]

Are your fighters loaded up from a "saved empire"?? It sounds like it may be - you mentioned it does not happen when you use organic. Are you both organic and crystal tech in your game?? I know this happens to me when I load a saved empire and I try to even look at a Weapons Platform, Fighter or Sat that has tech I cant research (or have not yet researched). If this is the case, try recreating your Fighter designs from scratch each game...