It depends which factions happen to be active in your game.
Cyberdisks are an Academy terror unit.
Blaster Launchers are the alien version of rocket launchers and as such are more powerful*
Yeah seems like im dealing with Spartans, Nazis/Humanists, Church, Raiders and Reticulans. Ive pretty much got the Academy under thumb, I hardly ever see any of their ships and they havent set up a single base yet.
I dont have much radar coverage but I dont see many huge ships either, alot of medium ones and im guessing those are either the reticulan ones with the chain lift or its a supply ship for the spartan base.
Havent got into orbital missions yet though, its on the list but ive got so much other stuff to research im not getting around to it.