Newbie question--autolaunch?

[LeTharg]

I'm a newbie to SE4 and 4X games in general and am playing my first real game (high difficulty no bonuses). I've been using fighters and satelites to protect my planets while I build a good base (at about turn 80). It is working OK so far, my neighbor seems to dislike me and sends small fleets every few turns which crash and burn against the satelites and fighters.

Since I have lots of resources being wasted I would like for each idle planet to build units all the time. The problem is it is a management pain. I can't build more than will fit in cargo and then I have to hand launch them.

Questions:
1. Can I have units auto-launched so I don't have to?
2. Is there a general way to automate repetative actions (scripting language or somesuch)?
3. Would ministers take care of this appropriately (haven't used them because I wanted to understand how things worked and there were too many ministers anyway)?
4. Have I missed some basic point and wandered down the wrong path?

Thank you